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PwC's Health Research Institute report, Medical cost trend: Behind the numbers 2014 ,finds that even as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) adds millions more newly-insured Americans to the health system next year, the medical cost trend in 2014 will dip even lower than in 2013.
As the federal government continues to squeeze down on reimbursement, hospitals and doctors are focused on full-scale transformation that shifts incentives away from fee-for-service medicine toward outcomes-based payment. Additionally, hospitals have been forming partnerships with urgent care centers and retail clinics offering less expensive and more convenient options that also expand their referral network for complex cases.