WASHINGTON, D.C. [Brown University] — Hospital mergers and the acquisition of physician practices by private equity firms lead to increasing consolidation among healthcare systems, which has been shown to increase patient costs without improving quality.  Yet these new ownership models remain deeply opaque to patients, employers, regulators — as well as researchers, like Brown University public health scholar Christopher Whaley, who need to be able to study them to understand how to lower healthcare costs.

In testimony offered before Congress on Wednesday, June 10, Whaley presented examples of how his Brown research team has used existing data to better understand how the evolving U.S. healthcare system and trends affect costs. The group’s research showed that private equity-affiliated physicians charge 6-10% higher prices than independent doctors; that commercial insurance plans pay more than double what Medicare Advantage plans pay; and that costs at ambulatory surgical centers are 36% lower than hospitals in the same counties.

“To improve the affordability of the U.S. healthcare system, I think it is critical for Congress and policymakers to improve both price and organizational transparency,” Whaley said.

Whaley was among of a panel of experts who testified in a hearing titled “Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: Examining Policies to Increase Health Care Transparency,” organized by the Subcommittee on Health of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The associate professor of health care policy, who is affiliated with the Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research at Brown’s School of Public Health, was invited to testify given his research on healthcare costs and price transparency.

The subcommittee is currently discussing multiple related healthcare bills: The Lower Costs, More Transparency Act; The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act; and The CHECK Act. Whaley urged support for all.

Whaley also addressed Medicare Advantage bills currently before the House, which he said would bring long-overdue accountability to broker compensation and Medicare Advantage service records, two areas where research from the Center for Advancing Health Policy Through Research have documented serious problems.

During his testimony and a lengthy Q&A session, Whaley repeatedly stressed that transparency alone will not fix the complex U.S. healthcare system. For one thing, patient-facing price tools have largely not changed behavior around shopping for healthcare services and insurance. Within the current system, he acknowledged, additional price transparency alone will not make it as easy to shop for an MRI as it is to shop for a car.

Yet he told Congress that increasing transparency is a necessary first step toward improving affordability.

“Transparency is foundational for everyone else who needs to act,” Whaley said. “Whether it’s employers negotiating on behalf of their workers, researchers studying healthcare market dynamics such as myself, states designing price reforms [or] federal regulators overseeing the Medicare program.”

The bills the subcommittee is considering have the potential to address some of the most consequential gaps in the current transparency framework, he concluded.