The average prices charged to commercial health plans by hospitals, as compared to what Medicare pays, remained relatively stable between 2012 and 2019, but there was a large amount of geographic variation in the trends, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Using national data capturing most U.S. hospitals, researchers found that the ratio of commercial-to-Medicare hospital prices increased by 7 percentage points during the period studied. However, when examining differences across defined health care markets, some regions saw large increases, while others saw significant declines.

The study estimated that restraining the growth rate of commercial-to-Medicare hospital price ratios in every region to the national average during the study period would have reduced national health spending by $39 billion in 2019. The findings are published in the April edition of the journal Health Affairs.

Read the full article about trends in hospital prices at RAND Corporation.