Employers Paying Hospitals More Than Double Medicare Prices (1)

Employers and health insurers paid hospitals more than double what Medicare would have paid in 2020, according to a RAND report released Tuesday.

Prices paid to hospitals during 2020 by employers and private insurers for inpatient and outpatient services averaged 224% of what Medicare would have paid, the RAND Corp. said in the fourth report it has issued comparing private insurance payments to health-care providers to Medicare rates.

The RAND report is an important benchmark for employers and insurers to compare whether they are paying fair prices to hospitals. Employers, which covered more than 50% of the U.S. ...