A new study shows that anticompetitive market power is widespread for each of the three most popular managed health care plans in the United States, and it's hurting both patients and physicians while contributing to higher health costs.
The report, issued by the American Medical Association, found that a "significant absence of health insurer competition" is present in 70 percent of metropolitan areas. The AMA's annual health insurance market analysis for the first time examines insurer competition in the markets for point-of-service plans, in addition to its annual analysis of health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations.
The study, which looked at 385 metropolitan areas in all 50 states, said that about 68 percent of the metropolitan areas studied by the AMA had one insurance company with a combined market share of 50 percent or more among HMOs, PPOs and POSs.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.