Increase in Employer Health Care Spending Exceeds 4 Percent for Third Straight Year

LAKE CHARLES, La., February 17, 2020 (Newswire.com) - New data on employer spending on health care provided to more than 156 million working Americans and their families highlights the need for hospitals to have more control over the prices they pay for medical supplies and devices.

Per-person health care spending grew at an annual rate of 4.3 percent from 2014 to 2018, according to the report from the Health Care Cost Institute. Exceeding per capita GDP growth, the spending growth is largely due to increases in the price of health care services. The report found that surgical admissions are a major driver of cost increases. Spending on surgical admissions had the largest cumulative growth between 2014 and 2018, rising 11 percent over five years, despite a drop in the number of surgical admissions.

“The HCCI report should serve as a wake up call for all hospitals,” said Ken Husted, chief operating officer, VeritasAdvantage. “The growing costs of surgical admissions is not sustainable, and hospitals have to be able to reduce the costs of these admissions without sacrificing care quality.”

VeritasAdvantage partners with hospitals to help them identify savings opportunities for medical supplies and devices. Combining monthly savings opportunities reports and a mobile app to scan products and instantly compare prices paid by other hospitals, VeritasAdvantage gives hospitals the power, insight and leverage to secure lower pricing on the medical supplies and devices their physicians and staff rely on to deliver high-quality care.

“Our sole goal is to make sure every hospital has the transparency it needs into the medical supply and device marketplace so it can make more informed purchasing decisions,” said Husted. “We know hospitals want to be partners in the national initiative to reduce health care costs. We give them the tools they need to be able to do that.”

For more information on how VeritasAdvantage partners with hospitals to reduce medical supply and device costs, contact Ken Husted at ken.husted@veritasadvantage or 337-602-6092.

ABOUT VERITASADVANTAGE

VeritasAdvantage, based in Lake Charles, Louisiana, provides tools and customized supply chain analytics to empower hospitals to secure lower prices on the medical supplies and devices used in their facilities daily. The company is endorsed by the Colorado Hospital Association and Louisiana Hospital Association. More information is available at veritasadvantage.com.

Source: VeritasAdvantage