Clinicians & Providers

• Annual Report on Health Care for Children and Youth in the United States: Focus on Trends in Hospital Use and Quality
• Health Care Costs and Utilization
• How to Get the Best Value for Your Health Insurance Plans: Do Homework during Open Enrollment to Save Money
• Medicare Expenditures, Physicians' Services

Hospital & Health System Resources

• GE Uses MEPS Data to Help Consumers Understand Costs of Chronic Conditions
• Health Care Costs and Utilization
• State of Alabama

Policymaker Resources

• AHRQ Research to Reduce Cost and Improve the Quality of Health Care
• GE Uses MEPS Data to Help Consumers Understand Costs of Chronic Conditions
• Health Care Costs and Utilization
• Learning From What Has Been
• Preventable Hospitalization Costs and Mapping Tool
• State of Alabama

Fact Sheets

September 1 2012 20120901

Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance

September 1 2012 20120901

Focus on Cost-Effectiveness Analysis at AHRQ

September 1 2012 20120901

Health Care Costs

September 1 2012 20120901

Learning From What Has Been

September 1 2012 20120901

The High Concentration of U.S. Health Care Expenditures

April 1 2002 20020401

AHRQ Research to Reduce Cost and Improve the Quality of Health Care

Other Research & Data

• A guided care approach helps curb health care costs of elderly patients with chronic conditions
• AHRQ Analyses of MEPS Data Inform Estimates of the Concentration and Persistence in the Level of Health Expenditures over Time
• Annual Report on Health Care for Children and Youth in the United States: Focus on Trends in Hospital Use and Quality
• Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital
• Children's Hospital Boston
• Consumers' CHECKBOOK
• David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
• Health Care Costs and Utilization
• How to Get the Best Value for Your Health Insurance Plans: Do Homework during Open Enrollment to Save Money
• IBM Integrated Health Services
• IBM Integrated Health Services
• Imperial College London
• Iowa Healthcare Collaborative
• MEPS Data in New Report on Hidden Costs of Health Care
• Massachusetts Medicaid Office of Clinical Affairs
• Medical Benefit Alternatives
• Michigan State University
• Milliman, Inc.
• Patient-centered Medical Home Cost Reductions Limited to Complex Patients
• Premier Inc.
• Premier Inc.
• Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
• State of Arizona
• State of Oregon
• State of Washington
• The Joint Commission
• The Urban Institute

News & Numbers

July 28 2011 20110728

Drug Expenses for Children With Asthma More Than Doubled in 10 Years

April 20 2011 20110420

Hospital Outpatient Care Represents More Than 20 Percent of all Ambulatory Care Costs in U.S.

April 7 2011 20110407

Uninsured Hospital Stays Surged from 2003 to 2008

March 16 2011 20110316

Hospital Charges Surpass Trillion Dollar Mark

July 28 2010 20100728

Price Tag for Treating Back Problems Now Totals $30.5 Billion

June 9 2010 20100609

Cost of Hospital Treatment for Blood Infection Surges, Especially for Uninsured Patients

March 31 2010 20100331

Hospital Charges For the Uninsured Up Substantially

March 18 2010 20100318

Treating Blood Infections Tops Annual Hospital Cost Increases

March 10 2010 20100310

Cholesterol and Diabetes Lead Drug Spending for the Elderly

Other News & Events

• 24-hour intensivist care in ICUs can lead to cost savings for the sickest patients admitted at night
• A guided care approach helps curb health care costs of elderly patients with chronic conditions
• AHRQ Study Examines Adverse Drug Events Caused by Medication Administration Errors
• Antiretroviral switching strategies to treat HIV improve survival and are cost-effective in resource-limited countries
• Bariatric surgery is not linked to lower costs among individuals with diabetes
• Benefits under the Affordable Care Act would have reduced out-of-pocket expenses
• Breast cancer is associated with higher health care use and costs for women covered by fee-for-service Medicaid
• Bundled payments for heart failure disease management programs can save money while reducing readmissions
• Care for patients with HIV remains expensive
• Certain Americans pay more than 10 percent of their family income to pay for medical expenses
• Consumers choose "high-value" health care providers when given combined cost and quality information
• Corporate social responsibility as well as profit motivates executives
• Cost of family coverage provided by employers 1.5 times more in 2009 than in 2000
• Cost of hospital treatment for blood infection surges
• Cost of hospitalization highest among the non-elderly
• Costs of congenital heart operations vary among hospitals
• Dental bills high in California
• Diabetes treatment involves more multidrug regimens and high financial burden
• Drug expenses for children with asthma more than doubled in 10 years
• Educational intervention helps doctors and patients split statin tablets to save money for patients and payers
• Employees' share of health plan premium costs up dramatically
• Giving consumers easy-to-understand information on health care quality and costs boosts the choice of high-value care
• HIV treatment costs much more when patients start treatment later in the disease
• Half of all annual medical expenditures are for chronic diseases
• Health Care Costs
• Health Care Costs and Utilization
• Health care costs of obesity are passed off to obese workers
• Higher nurse-patient ratios result in societal cost benefits for some hospital areas
• Hospital charges for the uninsured have soared
• Hospital charges surpass the trillion dollar mark
• Increased use of anesthesiologists in screening colonoscopy found to raise costs, but risks and benefits are still unknown
• Increasing premiums and other costs in Oregon's Medicaid program in 2003 led many to drop out
• Innovative software cuts costs and time for States to report hospital quality information to the public
• Many patients with diabetes who reach the Medicare Part D drug coverage gap don't talk about drug costs with their doctors
• Medicaid MCOs don't boost care access for the disabled or lower Medicaid expenditures
• Medical complications add 30 percent to employers' chronic care costs
• Medicare Advantage enrollees are admitted to hospitals with higher mortality rates than Medicare fee-for-service enrollees
• Most process-of-care events do not harm transplant patients, but they boost costs and lengthen hospital stays
• New Health IT Common Format for Adverse Event Reporting
• Nuclear kidney scans in children with urinary tract infections increase costs and radiation exposure
• Operating room procedures account for nearly half of hospitals' treatment costs
• Overweight or obese patients have higher health care expenditures
• Participation in reporting quality data can be costly for physicians and practices
• Partnership for Patients initiative launched to improve care and lower costs for Americans
• Partnership for Patients to Improve Care and Lower Costs for Americans
• Patient-centered Medical Home Cost Reductions Limited to Complex Patients
• Patients with chronic diseases who pay coinsurance less likely to refill their medication than those with fixed copayments
• Payment reform highlighted in special journal issue
• Physicians weigh the costs and benefits of integrating e-prescribing systems with electronic health records
• Pneumococcal disease continues to lead to substantial health care use and costs
• Price tag for treating back problems now totals $30.5 billion
• Primary care practices incur considerable costs for collecting data on diabetes quality improvement programs
• Risks, Benefits of Emerging Heart Valve Replacement Technique Not Fully Understood
• Similarly effective international guidelines for managing cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes vary in costs
• Some adults with disabilities covered by Medicaid have significant out-of-pocket health expenses
• State regulation of care quality is costly to nursing homes
• Studies examine impact of drug caps and pay for performance on care costs and outcomes
• Study Finds Consumers Choose High-Value Health Care Providers When Given Good Cost and Quality Information
• Study provides rare look at patterns of use and spending for physical therapy
• Study shows Guided Care benefits family caregivers, chronically ill older adults, and physicians, and may reduce costs
• Trauma care costs less at hospitals with lower mortality rates
• Treating blood infections tops annual hospital cost increases
• Where low-wage employees work, who their colleagues are, and spouses' wage level affect health insurance coverage and cost