On February 17, 2026, California Hospital Association (CHA) and Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) representatives were before the Superior Court of San Francisco as CHA contested the court’s tentative ruling sustaining OHCA’s demurrer. A demurrer is a motion that does not address factual allegations in a case, but rather challenges a plaintiff’s legal basis for a suit.  In December, the OHCA filed a demurrer to the petition for writ of mandate filed by the CHA. OHCA’s filing argued that CHA’s petition (1) lacked “a concrete and particularized injury” to […]

On January 22, the House Committee on Energy & Commerce held a hearing titled “Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: An Examination of Health Insurance Affordability.” The discussion centered on health care costs, patient access, and affordability across the entire health insurance marketplace, and focused on the role insurers play in care delivery. Meaningful Congressional action on rising healthcare prices has been limited in recent years. The purpose of Congressional hearings is often to gather information about a specific topic likely to be used to shape future legislation. For […]

The Source’s executive editor Katie Gudiksen, working with Arnold Analytics, co-authored a report on hospital market competition in Monterey County. The report was released today by California’s Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA). The study examines why prices at CHOMP, Natividad, and Salinas Valley Memorial are among the highest in the state and finds that limited competition—not higher costs or better quality—is the main driver. It also outlines the impact on local families and employers and offers policy options for the state to consider. Read the full report here: https://hcai.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/OHCA-Investigative-Study-of-Hospital-Market-Competition-in-Monterey-County.pdf.

On October 15, 2025, the California Hospital Association (CHA) filed suit against the California Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) (and affiliated defendants) over claims that OHCA’s spending targets are arbitrary, irresponsible and single out hospitals, and will severely disrupt hospital services, starving hospitals of needed resources. The California Legislature created OHCA in 2022 and authorized it: to analyze healthcare markets for cost trends and drivers of spending, to set and enforce cost-growth benchmarks for the state, and to review and assess the impact of mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and other […]

On September 5, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it would dismiss its appeal of a 2024 court ruling that had determined that the FTC’s attempt at creating a federal noncompete ban had exceeded the FTC’s authority.  Ending the legal defense of the noncompete ban effectively ends any chance of the ban going into effect. This saga began on April 23, 2024, when the FTC issued a rule banning many noncompete clauses in employee contracts, which was quickly challenged when several parties filed lawsuits against the rule.  On July […]

The Source team, in conjunction with The Petris Center and Catalyst for Payment Reform, has had new research published on hospital consolidation across geographic markets.  Consolidation among health systems has resulted in increased prices and caused the cost of employer-sponsored health benefits to increase much faster than inflation over the past few decades. Prior quantitative research demonstrates small, but significant price increases resulting from transactions that expand the geographic footprint of health systems, but the mechanisms by which these cross-market acquisitions raise prices is not completely resolved.  The methodology of this […]

The long-standing saga of Sidibe v. Sutter may finally be over.  The case, initially filed in federal district court for the Northern District of California in September 2012, has a long and convoluted history of complaints, amended complaints, a district court dismissal, an appeals court reversal, a summary judgment of some causes of action, a jury trial, and an appeal, among other steps. On March 2, 2025, the parties filed a notice in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California stating that an agreement in principle to […]

On November 7, California Governor Gavin Newsom called for a special session of the California Legislature to take steps to protect California from anticipated changes driven by the new Trump administration.  While many of the Governor’s areas of concern are not directly related to healthcare (including protecting civil rights, climate action, and immigrant families), there is a focus on reproductive rights, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights. The special session convened on December 2.  The primary goal of the session is to provide additional resources to the state Department of Justice […]

On Saturday, Sept 18, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed California AB 3129, legislation that would have created a requirement for the Attorney General to review and give approval before private equity groups could buy into certain health care facilities and providers (previously reported on by The Source). In his veto message, the Governor stated that the Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA), established in 2022, “was created as the responsible state entity to review proposed health care transactions, and it would be more appropriate for the OHCA to oversee these consolidation issues as […]

The convoluted journey of the FTC’s attempt to ban noncompete agreements has taken another turn.  On July 23, a Federal District Court Judge reversed a ruling from a lower Federal Court in Texas that had temporarily blocked the FTC from enforcing the rule, pending ongoing litigation.  The most recent ruling states that the FTC has the power to ban anticompetitive practices, including noncompete agreements.  The ruling also states that the plaintiff had not shown that it would suffer irreparable harm from the rule if it were allowed to go into […]