Relative Price and Provider Price Variation

CHIA reports annually on relative price to examine provider price variation in Massachusetts. Relative Price (RP) facilitates comparison of average provider prices while accounting for differences in patient acuity, the types of services providers deliver to patients, and the different insurance product types (e.g., HMO, PPO) that payers offer to their members.

For acute hospitals, CHIA calculates both payer-specific RP, which enables comparison ofprovider prices within a payer’s network, and cross-payer statewide relative price (S-RP), which enables comparison of acute hospital prices across all commercial payers.  

For other hospital types (chronic, rehabilitation, and psychiatric hospitals/acute hospitals with dedicated behavioral health units), CHIA calculates payer-specific RP results, enabling comparison within a payer’s network of hospitals that provide similar services. Payer-specific RP is also calculated for physician organizations.  

In August 2023, CHIA published relative price results with data through CY 2021 for Massachusetts hospitals and physician groups. CHIA also produced an interactive Tableau dashboard which enables users to explore this data in more detail.  

CY2021 Massachusetts Relative Price Data

Updated 8/17/2023

Please Note:

• In this interactive dashboard, data does not exist for all combinations of filter selections. In cases where no data exists, an intentionally blank page will appear. Due to data quality concerns, Cigna and United commercial were excluded from all Hospital data analysis. Additionally, Aetna, Cigna, and United Commercial were excluded from Physician Group data analysis due to data quality concerns. Hospital cohorts include academic medical centers, community hospitals, community-high public payer hospitals, teaching hospitals, and specialty acute hospitals. S-RP results for specialty acute hospitals are not shown because these hospitals are not comparable due to their unique patient populations and/or services. Please see the relative price methodology documentation for more detailed information.