HSC: Provider-Carrier Dominance Varies

Hospitals and doctors in some U.S. communities are doing a better job of bargaining for higher rates than providers in other parts of the country.

Researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), Washington, a health care think tank, write about that finding in a report on visits to 12 U.S. heath care markets.

Health plans had only modest success with efforts to hold down provider rates in Miami and in Boston, but dominant Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in some markets, such as Lansing, Mich., and Syracuse, N.Y., had the clout to hold down provider rates in their communities, the researchers say.