Trends in Hospital Pricing for Vulnerable Emergency Department Users, 2021-2023
12/04/2025
Hilltop Policy Analyst Morgane Mouslim, DVM, and Director of Analytics and Research Morgan Henderson, PhD, as well as Associate Professor Simone Singh of the University of Michigan, are co-authors of this article published in the American Journal of Managed Care. The authors present the results of their study that analyzes changes in emergency department (ED) facility fees for self-pay patients and highlights growing affordability challenges for uninsured and underinsured individuals. Drawing on hospital price transparency data from 926 hospitals reporting self-pay ED facility fees in both 2021 and 2023, the study identified significant inflation-adjusted price increases across all visit severity levels, with the steepest growth observed at for-profit and system-affiliated hospitals and in communities with higher proportions of uninsured Hispanic/Latino residents.