Findings in Health Insurance Reported from L.S. Dafny and Co-Researchers (Narrow Networks On The Health Insurance Marketplaces: Prevalence, Pricing,…

Findings in Health Insurance Reported from L.S. Dafny and Co-Researchers (Narrow Networks On The Health Insurance Marketplaces: Prevalence, Pricing, And The Cost Of Network Breadth)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Data detailed on Health Insurance have been presented. According to news reporting originating from Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "Anecdotal reports and systematic research highlight the prevalence of narrow-network plans on the Affordable Care Act's health insurance Marketplaces. At the same time, Marketplace premiums in the period 2014-16 were much lower than projected by the Congressional Budget Office in 2009."

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research, "Using detailed data on the breadth of both hospital and physician networks, we studied the prevalence of narrow networks and quantified the association between network breadth and premiums. Controlling for many potentially confounding factors, we found that a plan with narrow physician and hospital networks was 16 percent cheaper than a plan with broad networks for both, and that narrowing the breadth of just one type of network was associated with a 6-9 percent decrease in premiums. Narrow-network plans also have a sizable impact on federal outlays, as they depress the premium of the second-lowest-price silver plan, to which subsidy amounts are linked. Holding all else constant, we estimate that federal subsidies would have been 10.8 percent higher in 2014 had Marketplaces required all plans to offer broad provider networks."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Narrow networks are a promising source of potential savings for other segments of the commercial insurance market."

For more information on this research see: Narrow Networks On The Health Insurance Marketplaces: Prevalence, Pricing, And The Cost Of Network Breadth. Health Affairs, 2017;36(9):1606-1614. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA (see also Health Insurance).

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting L.S. Dafny, Harvard Sch Business, Business Adm, Boston, MA 02163, United States. Additional authors for this research include I. Hendel, V. Marone and C. Ody.

Keywords for this news article include: Boston, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America, Health Insurance, Hospital.

Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2017, NewsRx LLC