Paying for Health Care

Leaders of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) May 23 released the Lower Health Care Costs Act of 2019 – bipartisan discussion draft legislation focused on reducing health care costs.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to roll out its revised claim-review demonstration for Medicare fee-for-service home health services beginning Dec. 10 in Illinois.
In times of distress, Americans turn to hospital emergency departments. They do so because they know that there they will find care – from simple stitches to sophisticated diagnostics to emergency surgery. And they know that, no matter what, they will not be turned away.
The affordability of health care services is one of the biggest concerns facing families, as well as employers and government. However, it is a challenge that hospitals and health systems are tackling head on. Hospitals are making care more affordable in four key ways.
In 2015, America’s hospitals treated 142 million people in their emergency departments, provided 581 million outpatient visits, performed almost 27 million surgeries and delivered nearly 4 million babies. Every year, hospitals provide vital health care services like these to hundreds of millions of…
This page includes data that compares the cost of providing care versus what Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance plans pay hospitals. Additional data points provide insight into the age of hospital infrastructure, cost of borrowing money and changes in labor costs.
Financial fact sheets from AHA's Policy Research.
Hospitals and health systems are where the most complex care is provided for ill and injured patients. Yet, spending on inpatient and outpatient care has slowed; in fact, Medicare spending growth for hospital services is at its lowest level in 17 years. This data brief looks at trends in health…