In order to cut expenses and provide better-coordinated treatment to patients, a rise has been seen in the pattern of hospital employment of doctors and ownership of physician practices. Seeing these factors, researchers have said that outpatient care could become costlier when hospitals will own the medical practices or hire physicians.

The research paper published in JAMA Internal Medicine has assessed the financial effect of stricter financial integration between doctors and hospitals on people enrolled in private health insurance plans from 2008 to 2012.

Study’s lead researcher Hannah Neprash, a health policy researcher at Harvard University in Boston, said the communities where the maximum rise has been seen in financial integration, a rise of $75 was seen in the average annual outpatient costs for people having private health insurance.

“We document an increase in spending driven by prices, without any change in utilization. Some price increases may be acceptable – particularly if they are accompanied with improved quality of care”, affirmed Hannah.

Study researchers have even assessed spending and prices of around 7.4 million non-elderly adults in the communities having two different types of private health insurance coverage, first one preferred-provider organizations (PPO) and another one is point-of-service (POS) plan.

Average outpatient cost per enrollee in the PPO and POS plans in 2012 was around $2,400. Study’s senior author Dr. J. Michael McWilliams of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said that the newer payment arrangements are making providers more accountable for inpatient as well as outpatient spending and outcomes.