Hoosier employers bear burden of high hospital costs

The large Indiana hospitals say they want to do their part to lower the cost of health care for Hoosiers. Then they should do the right thing and lower their prices. Stop raking in record profits year after year in excess of 15 percent, stop shifting funds around to mask the bottom line, and simply negotiate responsible reimbursement rates in line with the national average. That is how they can help Hoosiers.

But that is not the approach of too many large metropolitan hospitals. Instead, they lay the blame on everyone else, including the health of Hoosiers, without acknowledging what study after study continues to show. Indiana hospitals operate at higher costs than nearly all other hospitals in the country. Not only do they refuse to acknowledge this fact, but they also try to deflect by arguing the wrong metrics are being analyzed or that the statistics are outdated.