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Intermountain Healthcare

Intermountain - Affordability
Reducing Costs

Reasonable Rates
As an efficiently managed nonprofit organization, Intermountain Healthcare achieves lower costs and provides services at lower rates. Because of cost cutting and quality-control efforts, Intermountain's average inpatient charges are 19% lower than the Utah average, according to 2003 Utah Department of Health data, and 27% below the national average, according to MEDPAR data.

Here are some examples of how Intermountain works to reduce and control costs:

System savings. As a healthcare system, Intermountain obtains discounts by purchasing in volume. Shared services, streamlined management, and other economies of scale help keep costs low.
Quality management. In medicine, higher quality costs less. Higher quality means fewer medical complications, shorter hospital stays, and less intensive use of medical resources. By investing in quality improvement, Intermountain has been able to control costs by improving the quality of care.
Prevention. By investing in preventive benefits and wellness programs for SelectHealth members, Intermountain is able to keep people healthier. Because healthier people require fewer medical resources, costs are lower overall.
Adequate financial reserves. Because Intermountain maintains adequate financial reserves and is prudently managed, Intermountain is currently the only health care organization to hold both an AA+ bond rating from Standard & Poor's and an Aa2 rating from Moody's Investors Services. These ratings allow Intermountain to borrow at lower rates. Intermountain passes these savings on to consumers in the form of lower rates for Intermountain services.