- Ocean County spends more than $10,600 per person on health care each year, a report discovered.
- It’s driven partially by age; nearly a quarter of the population is over 65.
- Monmouth County spends $9,117 per capital, ranking it 92nd nationwide.
Ocean County spends more than $10,600 per person on health care, among the nation’s highest, mainly because of its older population that doesn’t hesitate to see a doctor when they aren’t feeling well, according to a study released last week.
Rather than admonish New Jersey providers for charging too much or residents for going to an expensive emergency room for, say, a cold, researchers from the University of Washington said the solution to rising costs is more complex: Insurers and consumers appear to be spending lots of money on care for some ailments, but aren’t showing much improvement.
Two big expenses: dental care and musculoskeletal conditions like joint disorders. “When you look across time, there hasn’t really been a big reduction in burden across those diseases,” said Joseph Dieleman, the study’s lead author.
Dieleman and his colleagues tracked payments for 148 health conditions by looking through more than 40 billion insurance claims and 1 billion facilities records to produce what they said is the most comprehensive study on U.S. health care spending.
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Their study was released as consumers this year face the highest increase in medical costs in 13 years due to inflation, an increase in prescription drug use and innovative therapies, according to the PwC consulting group.
Closer to home, two of New Jersey’s biggest health care companies, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield and Hackensack Meridian Health, are locked in a contract dispute.
The University of Washington report found New Jersey spent $75.6 billion on health care in 2019, the seventh-most per person nationwide. Ocean County led the way: It spent $10,620 per capita, ranking 13th out of more than 3,000 counties nationwide. Monmouth County, spent $9,117 per capita, ranking 92nd nationwide.
The report was notable for what it didn’t find: New Jersey hospitals vastly overcharging or patients flocking to the expensive emergency room for care. Instead, it found much of the spending was due to utilization, particularly at doctors’ offices.
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It fit a broader pattern. The researchers found states and counties with high insurance rates, income and education levels were more likely to use the health care system more often. It made for vast differences in spending by county. Nassau County, New York, had the highest per capita spending in the nation, at $13,332, while Clark County, Idaho, had the lowest at $3,410.
In New Jersey, Ocean County stood out. Nearly a quarter of its population is over age 65, and seniors there are more likely to be covered by traditional Medicare than Medicare Advantage plans that are administered by private companies, Dieleman said.
“That certainly lines up with a lot of intuition that as you invest in preventive care, you would like to see reductions in emergency department care,” he said.
Where can New Jersey find savings? Dieleman said the Garden State spends 23% more for nursing care than the national average. And he found a mismatch between the state’s most pressing health problems and where it spends the bulk of its health care dollars.
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For example: New Jersey spends the second-most money for joint disorders, but it remains the third leading cause of poor health.
“I see that as a red flag for asking questions if the spending is as effective and efficient as it could be,” Dieleman said.
Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter at the Asbury Park Press. He has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry since 1999. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.
