The murky world of hospital pricing would be exposed to more sunlight under a bill approved this week by state lawmakers.

The legislation calls for the state-run employee health plan to annually publish details of its spending on hospital care, which is the predominant driver of rising health costs nationwide.

The report is meant to document the prices that individual hospitals charge for various services – basic information that consumers and policymakers need, but which is normally hidden from public view.

The bill – sponsored by Sen. Andrew Gounardes, D-Brooklyn, and Assembly Member Michaelle Solages, D-Valley Stream – was unanimously approved by the Senate on May 30 and passed the Assembly by a vote of 143-2 on Monday.

The legislation was the brainchild of the 32BJ Health Fund, a benefit plan for unionized building service workers which has identified hospital charges as the “leading driver” of rising health costs for its members.

The 32BJ Health Fund has also led the push for a similar reporting on hospital spending by the City of New York.

A 2022 study by the fund, based on its own claims data, found that six of the city’s biggest not-for-profit hospital systems – NewYork-Presbyterian, NYU Langone, Northwell, Mount Sinai, Montefiore and Maimonides – charged significantly more for common procedures than hospitals owned by the city or by major medical centers in Boston.

For example, delivery of a baby by Cesarean section typically cost more than $45,000 at NewYork-Presbyterian, compared to $27,000 at Boston Medical Center and $18,000 at a New York City Health + Hospitals facility.

The Albany legislation would generate a similar analysis of hospital spending by the New York State Health Insurance Plan, or NYSHIP, which covers state and local government employees and retirees and their family members.

With 1.2 million members, NYSHIP reported paying $10.3 billion in claims in 2021, 41 percent of which went toward hospital care.

If the bill is signed by Governor Hochul, the first report on NYSHIP’s hospital spending would be due from the Department of Civil Service on Jan. 1, 2024.

New York’s overall hospital spending is high and rising fast. As of 2020, the state’s per capita hospital costs were 43 percent higher than the national average, up from 22 percent five years earlier.

 

About the Author

Bill Hammond

As the Empire Center’s senior fellow for health policy, Bill Hammond tracks fast-moving developments in New York’s massive health care industry, with a focus on how decisions made in Albany and Washington affect the well-being of patients, providers, taxpayers and the state’s economy.

Read more by Bill Hammond

You may also like

One Brooklyn Health’s Money Troubles Raise a Billion-Dollar Question

A brewing fiscal crisis at One Brooklyn Health, which has received more than $1 billion in turnaround funding from the state, raises the question of whether that money has been well spent. Read More

Hochul Signals Tough Budget Ahead

Governor Hochul’s administration this week urged agency heads to keep their budgets flat next year. It's the most serious acknowledgement yet of state government’s looming financial shortfall. Read More

Federal Staffing Rule Would Compound Hiring Pressure for New York Nursing Homes

Nursing homes that are struggling – and mostly failing – to comply with the state's two-year-old minimum staffing law would face even stiffer hiring challenges under newly proposed federal standards. Read More

What DFS Doesn’t Want To Tell You About Soaring Health Premiums

When the Department of Financial Services made its annual announcement about health insurance price increases last week, it neglected to mention one thing: how much the prices were increasing. Read More

As migrants flow to NY, so does red ink 

The influx of foreign migrants to New York could cost the state $4.5 billion more than expected next year, Governor Hochul today warned.  Read More

Beware of Medicaid’s Spending Swings

The state's Medicaid spending is becoming increasingly volatile from month to mo Read More

New York’s Health Insurance Affordability Gap Grows Wider

New Yorkers paid some of the highest health premiums in the country in 2022, with one benchmark of affordability reaching its worst level yet, according to recently released federal survey of private-sector benefit plans. Read More

The Health Department’s Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Report Leaves a Key Question Unanswered

As Medicaid downsizes in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, reporting by New York and other states is missing data on an important group – outgoing enrollees who successfully made the switch to job-based insurance Read More

Empire Center Logo Enjoying our work? Sign up for email alerts on our latest news and research.
Together, we can make New York a better place to live and work!