EBRI data show employer plans pay hospital outpatient departments about twice what physician offices receive for the same physician-administered drugs, and the commercial market has barely begun to address the gap.
CMS' proposed cuts to physician fees focus on the operating room. For the primary care physicians managing recovery after surgery, the real gap is much larger.
Health care was the only one of five sectors to cut spending commitments this spring, falling 2.8% as hospitals faced rising supply costs and physicians awaited the final 2027 Medicare fee schedule, Coupa's Business Spend Index found.
Trilliant Health's annual trends report traces primary care shortages, payment gaps and looming price caps to incentives no single stakeholder has reason to fix.