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Inflation and higher health spending helped drive monthly premiums for Affordable Care Act coverage up an average of 3.4% between 2022 and 2023, reversing a trend of recent declines, according to a new report from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Why it matters: Some of the increase was also attributed to uncertainty over whether Congress would extend or make permanent premium subsidies, which complicated insurers' decision making. Extending subsidies would incentivize healthy people who choose to buy coverage previously deemed unaffordable. (Dreher, 4/4)

A region with one or two carriers averaged $128 and $119 higher premiums compared to a region that had five or more. The bump in premiums comes amid relative stability over the past several years for the exchanges. Average annual premiums dipped 2.2% from 2019 through 2022. (King, 4/3)

Hospitals routinely charge less to patients who pay in cash and seek to recoup the difference from commercially insured patients in markets where they can exert leverage, according to a new Johns Hopkins study published in Health Affairs. Why it matters: The analysis for 70 services — drawn from data reported by 2,379 hospitals as of September 2022 — provides another window into the opaque world of hospital pricing and could be a data point for employers in their negotiations with insurers or directly with providers. (Bettelheim, 4/4)

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a letter Monday she'll ask state and federal lawmakers to take action to ensure residents continue to have access to preventive health care "without having to worry about whether they can afford it." (Mauger, 4/3)

Top Senate Democrats have proposed reforms to state health plans for public workers that would decentralize plan administration after a year of mammoth rate increases spurred questions over Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield’s administration of the system. The bill would allow the State Health Benefits Plan and its schools counterpart, the School Employees Health Benefits Plan, to select more than one firm to administer state health benefits and require they pick at least two. (Biryukov, 4/4)

Nonprofit hospitals that paid their board members offered less charity care than facilities that didn't, per a new Health Affairs analysis. Why it matters: Nonprofit hospitals are required to offer charity care in exchange for their tax-exempt status. But the sector has come under scrutiny for its pricing practices and for saving more in tax exemptions than it provides in uncompensated care. (Dreher, 4/4)

Nevadans could see the price of certain prescriptions capped under a bill considered by lawmakers Monday. Assembly Bill 250, sponsored by Assemblywoman Venicia Considine, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblywoman Natha C. Anderson, D-Sparks, would cap the price of certain drugs to rates negotiated by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. (Avery, 4/3)