EP466: What Is Rising Faster, Insurance Premiums or Hospital Prices? With Vivian Ho, PhD
Release Date: 03/06/2025
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EP480: Payment Integrity Meets Health System Boasts, Such as Our Rates Are 2x Medicare, With Kimberly Carleson
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EP479: Part 2. What Could Go Wrong Covering High-Cost Claimants With Stop-Loss Reinsurance?
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EP478: Stop-Loss Coverage, Part 1: How It Goes Right, and How It Can Go Horribly Wrong, With Andreas Mang and Jon Camire
Relentless Health Value
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EP477: Through Line Show: What the Tribe Thinks You Need to Know About Trust or It’s Gonna Be a Problem. Also, Why You Are Smart, With Stacey Richter
Relentless Health Value
In this episode, Stacey Richter explores the impact of trust on healthcare outcomes, drawing from listener contributions and prior episodes of Relentless Health Value. The discussion underscores how trust or the lack thereof affects patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems. Key points include the importance of building trusted relationships, the detrimental effects of antitrust behaviors, and the broader implications for healthcare delivery. Stacey also highlights a bonus show featuring Charles Green on earning and maintaining trust. The episode concludes with an uplifting message about...
info_outlineHealthcare costs keep rising, but what’s driving those increases? In this episode, Stacey Richter speaks with Dr. Vivian Ho, a health economist at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine, to break down the real reasons behind skyrocketing commercial insurance premiums.
- Are insurance premiums rising faster than wages—and why does it matter?
- What’s the biggest driver of premium increases? (Spoiler: It’s hospital prices.)
- Are hospital price hikes justified by rising costs—or is something else at play?
Dr. Ho shares data-backed insights on hospital consolidation, executive incentives, and how health system pricing impacts self-insured employers and plan sponsors. If you’re a healthcare executive or a jumbo employer managing benefits, this episode is a must-listen.
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05:12 Are insurance premiums going up?
05:59 What is the disparity between cost of insurance and wage increases?06:21 LinkedIn post by Byron Hugley.
06:25 Article by Michael Strain.
06:46 How much have insurance premiums gone up for employers versus employees?
09:06 Chart showing the cost to insure populations of employees and families.
10:17 What is causing hospital prices and insurance premiums to go up so exponentially?
12:53 Article by (and tribute to) Uwe Reinhardt.
13:49 EP450 with Marilyn Bartlett, CPA, CGMA, CMA, CFM.
15:28 Are razor-thin operating margins for hospitals causing these rising hospital prices?
16:56 Collaboration with Marilyn Bartlett and the NASHP Hospital Cost Tool.
19:47 What is the explanation that hospitals give for justifying these profits?23:16 How do these hospital cost increases actually happen?
27:06 Study by Zack Cooper, PhD.
27:50 Who typically makes up a hospital board, and why do these motivations incentivize hospital price increases?
30:12 EP418 with Mark Cuban and Ferrin Williams, PharmD, MBA.
33:17 Why is it vital that change start at the board level?