While more care is shifting from inpatient to outpatient facilities across Massachusetts, that transition isn’t yielding the expected cost savings, new data show.
Massachusetts hospital outpatient spending grew by 7.3% per Medicare beneficiary from 2018 to 2019, which was twice the rate of the national average, according to data from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission and the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis. More than 70% of the increase in hospital outpatient visits occurred among academic medical centers, which typically have the highest costs and prices.
Industry observers have hoped that healthcare costs would decrease as more procedures
