PROVIDENCE — Partners HealthCare of Massachusetts received the highest share of commercial payments and had the highest-priced hospitals in Massachusetts in 2016 while Partners’ physician group, Partners Community Healthcare, Inc. tied for second most expensive physician group in the state, according to a recent report from the Bay State’s Center for Health Information and Analysis.
The report comes weeks after Rhode Island’s Office of Health Insurance Commissioner released a report raising concerns that a proposed acquisition of Care New England Health System could threaten health care affordability.
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The CHIA report showed Partners HealthCare received the highest share of commercial payments, 31 percent, in 2016. Two Partners-owned hospitals, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, collectively received 24.0 percent of the commercial payments made to all acute hospitals, according to the report.
The report also examined statewide relative price, or S-RP, for each hospital. Four of the five community hospitals with S-RP values above average were Partners HealthCare hospitals, with two, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and Nantucket Cottage Hospital, rated the most expensive in the state.
Martha’s Vineyard Hospital was 121 percent higher than average; Nantucket Cottage Hospital was 97 percent higher than average. The hospitals also saw the fewest number of patients, at 0.3 percent of payments and 0.2 percent of payments, respectively, as they are both geographically isolated hospitals.
Cooley Dickinson Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital were each one percent more expensive than average, with 0.8 percent and 1.3 percent of payments, respectively.
Partners’ biggest hospitals, Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, had the biggest percentage of patients at 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Each hospital was 38 percent more expensive than the average hospital in Massachusetts.
Partners physician group, Partners Community Healthcare, Inc., claimed 26.6 percent of commercial payments to physicians in the state, nearly three times the amount of payments received by The Children’s Hospital Corp., the next largest physician group, which was the most expensive with an S-RP of 100. Partners tied with Reliant Medical Group for second most expensive physician group, each with S-RP ratings of 89.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
