Dataset Information

Comparing different methods of indexing commercial health care prices.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To compare different methods of indexing health care service prices for the commercially insured population across geographic markets.

Data sources

Health Care Cost Institute commercial claims data from 2012 to 2016.

Study design

We compare price indices computed using methods with differing levels of computational intensity: weighted-average versus regression-based methods. We separately compute indices of the prices paid for set of common inpatient and set of common outpatient services in different markets across the United States using each type of method. We subsequently examined the variation of and correlations between the resulting index values.