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it was the first company we had seen that flattened out clinical data and matched it with administrative data.”

But one example he gives would be around transparency in hospital practices, identifying trends that would be used compare the costs of one hospital caring for a particular patient with another system in the context of the clinical stream to see what each one is doing differently.

Every health system is in the business of protecting their doctors,” said Miller.

In 2012, 28% of large U.S. employers hosted on-site medical clinics, and 39% will have them by 2014, a Towers Watson survey found. The figure in 2011 was 23%.

Consultants and health-care providers are advising employers to add chronic-disease management—from regular blood and glucose tests to nutrition and lifestyle coaching—to their clinic

But the ACA does little to address fragmentation, quality of care, and the sustainability of the financial model for U.S. health care — ho

At the foundation of our approach is a knowledge-management system — an electronic archive of Mayo Clinic-vetted knowledge containing evidence-based protocols, order sets, alerts and care process models

It is alarming to see more than a two-fold variation in health care quality across the country.

Several hospital chains are driving the boom – including HCA Inc., which will open its seventh ER later this year in Florida, and Wake Med Health and Hospitals, which will add its fourth next month in the Raleigh, N.C., metro area. They regard the facilities as a way to expand into new markets, generate admissions to their hospital and reduce crowding at their hospital-based ERs.

reater Houston has 150 emergency rooms — twice the number as greater Miami -- even though its population is only slightly bigger, according to a KHN analysis.

While the ERs charge insurers double or triple the amount per patient as an urgent care center or doctor's office, patients use them for routine care that could be provided in less costly settings, Ho says. That is the case with standard ERs as well. Yet, insured patients have little incentive to drive past the more expensive, freestanding ERs because their co-payment is only $50 or $100, just modestly more than what it might cost for a visit to an urgent care center or doctor’s office. Their insurers pay the balance generally.

xpanding services to diagnosis and treatment of chronic conditions that affect millions of Americans is a logical step, because the clinics can not only grow their own business, but also partner with hospitals and doctors’ groups to gain new customers, said Ronald L. Hammerle, president of Health Resources, a Florida consulting firm.

Consumers, meanwhile, who are paying a greater share of the cost, are making spending adjustments.  Many are delaying care, using fewer services and choosing less expensive options such as retail clinics, urgent care centers and mobile health devices.

“Healthcare cost increases continue to exceed overall growth in wages, but the gap appears to be shrinking.  The long-term trends suggest that as the economy improves, the cycle of runaway cost increases will be broken,” said Michael Thompson, principal with PwC’s human resource services practice.  “This is critical as employers strategically reevaluate the role of healthcare benefits to their organizations and step up efforts to engage employees more directly in value-based healthcare decision making.”

"Fifteen years ago, pricing was not as important…[but] when the co-pay is coming out of a patient's pocket, they more often want to know what they're paying," said Moshir Jacob, medical director at the Toledo Clinic. The Ohio practice advertises that it offers lower prices than area hospita

Others doubt there has been a structural change. "We haven't done anything in the past three or four years that fundamentally altered the health-care system," said Gerard Anderson of Johns Hopkins University, who was the lead author of the "It's the Prices, Stupid" paper a decade ago. "And everything in Obamacare that tried to control cost was watered down."

The system now offers members a choice: Have your procedure at one of 51 hospitals that agreed to limit what they charge, or have the surgery elsewhere and pay any expenses above $30,000 out of pocket.