Objective: To compare methods of price measurement in health care markets.
Data sources: Truven Health Analytics MarketScan commercial claims.
Study design: We constructed medical prices indices using three approaches: (1) a "sentinel" service approach based on a single common service in a specific clinical domain, (2) a market basket approach, and (3) a spending decomposition approach. We constructed indices at the Metropolitan Statistical Area level and estimated correlations between and within them.
Principal findings: Price indices using a spending decomposition approach were strongly and positively correlated with indices constructed from broad market baskets of common services (r > 0.95). Prices of single common services exhibited weak to moderate correlations with each other and other measures.
Conclusions: Market-level price measures that reflect broad sets of services are likely to rank markets similarly. Price indices relying on individual sentinel services may be more appropriate for examining specialty- or service-specific drivers of prices.
Keywords: Health care finance; MarketScan Research Data; medical price indices; quantitative methods.
© Health Research and Educational Trust.