The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission has raised concerns over a $1 billion expansion plan by Boston Children's Hospital.
The agency claims the hospital already has the highest prices in the state and the expansion will drive an increase in that the expansion would cause medical prices to skyrocket, The Boston Globe reported. Furthermore, the expansion could put other children's hospitals out of business. Children's controls about 46 percent of the pediatric market statewide.
“I don’t think we’re in the business of picking winners and losers,” Health Policy Commission Chairman Stuart Altman observed, according to the Boston Globe. “I believe in markets . . . but we can’t rule out the implication that that would have on cost.”
The Bay State is already struggling with controlling costs, an issue exacerbated by a lack of price transparency and wide variations in pricing for identical services. And even though the state has been on the cutting-edge in promoting price transparency, many consumers still have issues accessing actionable price information.
The commission has no power to block the project, but it can send its objections to the Massachusetts Department of Health, which does regulate the contours of the project.
But officials with Children's Hospital told the newspaper that the expansion would have a negligible impact on costs. Hospital spokesman Rob Graham said that commission's data was flawed and misleading. Under the worst-case scenario, he projected the cost impact would be a 0.033 percent increase in costs to residents.