Forum Session

Location, Location, Location: Market Characteristics and Private Payer Health Care Spending
September 23, 2005

Manager

Laura A. Dummit

Summary

This Forum session highlighted a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on geographic variation in hospital and physician prices paid by private health plans. This study expands the research on geographic variation in health care spending by adding information on the market area factors that affect the price of services. After a summary of the report was presented, a panel of health policy experts discussed the implications of the GAO findings in the context of other market research as well as its implications for health policy.

Speakers

Christine Brudevold, MPH, PhD, Assistant Director, Government Accountability Office

With Comments From:
Joseph R. Antos, PhD, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Robert Berenson, MD, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute; Michael A. Morrisey, MA, PhD, Professor and Director, Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Related Materials

See also the GAO report discussed at this session.