THE SOURCE BLOG

Healthcare System Mergers and Investments Private Equity-Acquired Physician Practices and Market Penetration Increased Substantially, 2012-21 (Health Affairs) Ola Abdelhadi, Brent D. Fulton, Laura Alexander, and Richard M. Scheffler The awareness for private equity’s influence on the healthcare sector continues to grow and be quantified. Generally, there has been concern among parties in the health care system regarding the rate at which private equity firms have been acquiring physician practices, creating antitrust, quality, and pricing concerns within the broader health system. A new Health Affairs study estimated the local market share …

The California Legislature wrapped up its annual introduction period for new bills on February 16. Among the wide swath of proposed health care bills, one, in particular, has caught the attention of many legal experts and players in the health care field. AB-3129 was introduced by Assemblymember Jim Wood and Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta on the last day of the introduction period.  It proposes sweeping regulations around how private equity firms and hedge funds can participate in owning and managing healthcare facilities. The introduction of the bill comes amidst …

Health Policy Trends The 2024 CHCF California Health Policy Survey (California Health Care Foundation) Jen Joynt, Rebecca Catterson, Emily Alverez, Larry Bye, Vicki Pineau, and Lin Liu The California Health Care Foundation released results from its fifth annual California Health Policy survey. Researchers from the California Health Care Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago surveyed a representative sample to assess Californian’s views and experiences on a myriad of health care topics. This year’s survey yielded a number of key findings. Among them, researchers found that there is a …

Healthcare System Mergers and Investment Models for Enhanced Health Care Market Oversight – State Attorneys General, Health Departments, and Independent Oversight Entities (Milbank Memorial Fund) Erin C. Fuse Brown, Katherine L. Gudiksen The Source’s own Katherine L. Gudiksen co-authored this report for the Milbank Memorial Fund with Eric C. Fuse Brown, which assesses the tools state policy makers are using to address harmful health care market consolidation. Specifically, the report focuses on how states have broadened review authority by expanding the existing authority of the Attorney General (or other state …

On January 10, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom released his proposed California state budget for 2024-2025. In a year where the state was expected to struggle financially, the Legislative Analyst’s Office had originally predicted that the budget deficit could extend upwards of $68 billion due to 2023’s seven month tax filing extension, steep stock market declines, and economic dampening from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. However, to the surprise of many, the released budget projected a significantly smaller budgetary shortfall at $38 billon. The Governor announced plans to close this …

Healthcare Costs and Spending Arriving at a Fair Price in the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program: Considerations from Other Countries (Health Affairs Forefront) John K. Lin, James I. Barnes, Jalpa A. Doshi, Salah Ghabri, Peter Kolominksy-Rabas, Brian O’Rourke The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are slated to begin negotiating drug prices for a subset of Medicare drugs soon, due to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. Recognizing the subjectivity involved in determining fair drug prices, this article highlights the authors’ perspectives on CMS’ current strategic shortcomings and analyzes …

In the last issue of California Legislative Beat, we examined some significant bills from year one of California’s 2023-2024 legislative term. Specifically, we focused on legislation that sought to make changes in healthcare competition, consolidation, and system reform. In part 2 of the 2023 session recap, we turn our attention to bills that aimed to tackle healthcare service and pharmaceutical costs, coverage, and price transparency.   Healthcare Costs and Coverage Californians can expect to be protected from surprising dental or emergency ground medical transportation bills soon. The legislature approved and …

On September 14, the California Legislature concluded the 2023 legislative session when it adjourned for an interim recess. The session marked the end of the first year of the two-year 2023-2024 term. In total, the Legislature introduced over 3,000 bills this session – more bills than it has introduced in more than a decade; of which, 700 bills remain active. Like past sessions, the California Legislative Beat recaps the noteworthy bills from this session that impact California’s health care market in a two-part series. In this Part 1 of our …

Healthcare Costs and Spending A Study of the Cost of Care Provided in Physician Owned Hospitals Compared to Traditional Hospitals (Physician’s Advocacy Institute and the Physicians Foundation) Robert H. Aseltine and Gregory J. Matthews The Physician’s Advocacy Institution and the Physicians Foundation released a new technical report summarizing their findings from an investigation comparing the cost of care patients across Medicare’s 20 most expensive conditions in 2019 in physician owned hospitals (POHs) and traditional hospitals. The authors assessed the statistical similarities in cost, patient demographics, and comorbidity levels between hospitals in …