Rural Healthcare Access Rural Hospital Closures Led to Increased Prices at Nearby ‘Surviving’ Hospitals, 2012-22 (Health Affairs) Caitlin Carrol, Jessica Chang Research on how consolidation affects healthcare pricing largely centers on mergers rather than closures. Hospital closures, especially those in rural areas, reallocate patient populations to nearby ‘surviving’ hospitals posing distinct effects on the remaining healthcare market. In theory, reallocation of a patient population can increase production efficiencies and lower costs at the remaining hospital, resulting in savings that could be passed to consumers in the form of lower prices. […]

Healthcare Consolidation Partnerships Between Pharmaceutical and Telehealth Companies – Increasing Access or Driving Inappropriate Prescribing? (The New England Journal of Medicine) Erin C. Fuse Brown, Oliver J. Wouters, Attev Mehrotra As technology has progressed, so too have health care delivery mechanisms for Americans. However, an emerging collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, like Pfizer and Eli Lilly, and telehealth companies is leaving many divided. Pharmaceutical companies have evolved their marketing and disbursement practices by increasingly using social media marketing to now directly link to telehealth providers who connect healthcare consumers with a […]

Market Consolidation and Merger Review The Forgotten Anti-Monopoly Law: The Second Half of Clayton Act Section 7 (Texas Law Review) Robert H Lande, John M Newman, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter The authors of this article analyze the second prong of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits mergers that “tend to create a monopoly.” In comparison to the well-known first prong that seeks to “substantially lessen competition,” the second prong is posited to wield more statutory power as it does not contain a requirement for a certain degree of harm […]

Private Equity in Healthcare The Rise of Private Equity in Health Care  — Not a Uniquely American Phenomenon (The New England Journal of Medicine) Yashaswini Singh, Erin Fuse Brown, and Irene Papanicolas Private equity investment in the United States has become an increasingly hot topic – with many debating whether the industry’s prioritization of short-term profitability over long-term investments make it an appropriate fit for patient care. While the issue of private investment in healthcare may appear to many to be a uniquely American phenomenon, given this country’s market-based system, […]

Healthcare Pricing Can Public Option Plans Improve Affordability? Insights From Colorado (Health Affairs Forefront) Roslyn Murray, Christopher M. Whaley In the face of individuals and families unable to afford increasing insurance premiums due to lack of healthcare insurance competition, a variety of states are considering offering public option plans, commonly for ACA Exchange plans. These plans seek to provide coverage with low premiums by means of capped prices for those who do not meet Medicare or Medicaid requirements nor receive private coverage through employment. The article describes Colorado’s effective public […]

Price Transparency Hospital Payment Caps Could Save State Employee Health Plans Millions While Keeping Hospital Operating Margins Healthy (Health Affairs) Roslyn C. Murray, Christopher M. Whaley, Erin C. Fuse Brown, Andrew M. Ryan As health insurance premiums continue to rise, state employee health plans are occupying an increasing portion of state budgets. State employers are often the largest purchaser or commercial health insurance in each state, given the volume of employees that they employ. As such, state governments are placed in a unique negotiating position to implement cost containment strategies. […]

Healthcare Competition and Consolidation Chang(ing) Health Care: Bigger May Not Be Better, Just Necessary (Health Affairs Forefront) Atul Grover, Jonathan B. Jaffery As the health care market increasingly trends towards consolidation, many have been left wondering whether the trend towards amalgamated efficiency truly is better. The authors of a new Health Affairs article are arguing that the answer is no. Specifically, they state that the trend towards larger, more consolidated entities is resulting in higher health care costs without marked improvements to quality. As health systems become larger, their power […]

Healthcare Competition and Consolidation Are “All or Nothing” Contracts by Hospital Systems Anti-Competitive? – Evidence from a Recent Antitrust Lawsuit (Journal of Hospital Management and Health Policy) Glenn Melnick, Katya Fonkych Research has consistently shown that hospital prices are a major driver of increasing healthcare costs in the United States, with the expansion of multi-hospital systems contributing highly to this trend. While contracts between hospitals and health plans have been suspected to contribute to increasing prices, these assertions could not be confirmed until recently since many of these contracts have […]

Healthcare Competition and Consolidation The Rise of Health Care Consolidation and What to Do About It (Health Affairs Forefront) Erin C. Fuse Brown, Yashawini Singh, Christopher M. Whaley, Jared Perkins As hospital consolidation continues to meteorically rise, an increasing number of government institutions including the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and Congress, have diverted move resources towards understanding and responding to the negative impacts of these trends. The drive towards health care consolidation began in the 1990s and has resulted in a highly concentrated hospital market.  Increased consolidation […]

Healthcare Competition and Consolidation Vertical Integration and Market Consolidation in Healthcare: Policy Drivers and Impact on Physicians and Patient Care (Seminars in Colon and Rectal Surgery) Rachel Ekaireb, Anna Yap, and Robert Kucejko Over the past several decades, the healthcare market has become increasingly consolidated. For instance, in the last twelve years alone, the percentage of physicians employed by hospitals or healthcare systems has more than doubled from 26% to 55%. While proponents for vertical integration have touted its potential to improve the efficiency and quality of care delivery, empirical […]