Healthcare Consolidation
The Source Advisory Board Member Tim Greaney to Testify at Senate Subcommittee Hearing
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor June 11, 2019
The Source Advisory Board Member and UC Hastings Professor Tim Greaney is scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights. The hearing is titled “Your Doctor/Pharmacist/Insurer Will See You Now: Competitive Implications of Vertical Consolidation in the Healthcare Industry”. Tune in for the live video streaming of the event on Wednesday, June 12 at 2:30PM EST. Read Professor Greaney’s latest paper Navigating the Backwater: Vertical Mergers in Health Care published in CPI Antitrust Chronicle.
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The Source Roundup: May 2019 Edition
Tiffany Wang, Student Fellow May 1, 2019
Happy May! We hope you’re enjoying the longer, sunnier days of spring. In this edition of The Source Roundup, we survey articles and reports that discuss 1) health system consolidation’s impact on healthcare prices and quality, 2) the new federal price transparency rule, and 3) cost-containment strategies from various fronts. More Evidence of Hospital Market Concentration’s Negative Impact on Competition and Healthcare Costs Two articles this month reinforced the principle that protecting access to affordable healthcare requires strong antitrust enforcement policies to ensure adequate competition among hospitals and hospital systems. …
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Who’s Driving Healthcare Prices: A Look at Anticompetitive Conduct of Various Players in the Healthcare Market
Source Fellow and Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor April 9, 2019
By: Megan O’Leary, Student Fellow and Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor On Thursday, April 4, The Source attended the “Antitrust in the New Millennium Symposium” hosted by UC Hastings College of the Law. This blog focuses on the session “New Antitrust and Healthcare”, moderated by The Source Board member and UC Hastings Professor Thomas Greaney, and featuring the panel of, notably all women, UC Hastings Professor Robin Feldman, California Senior Assistant Attorney General Kathleen Foote, and American Antitrust Institute (AAI) President Diana L. Moss. What drives rising healthcare prices? Perhaps it stems …
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The Source Roundup: February 2019 Edition
Source Fellow February 1, 2019
By: Erin Sclar, Student Fellow Happy February! As we eagerly await this year’s health policy valentines on Twitter, we review recent academic articles that examine a variety of issues related to health care costs, including 1) the effect of vertical integration in health care, 2) health reform and theories of cost control, 3) why the US spends so much on health care, 4) how ACOs use population segmentation to care for high-cost patients, 5) characteristics and spending patterns of high-cost Medicare patients, and 6) an evaluation of bundled payments for joint …
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Recapping the 2017-2018 California Legislative Session (Part 2): Incremental Steps Made in Scrutinizing Market Changes and High Health Care Costs
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher January 29, 2019
As California begins its 2019-2020 legislative cycle, we look back at the 2017-2018 bills that will affect California health care costs and markets. Previously, we mentioned that last session’s health care bills coalesced around four themes: targeting high costs of prescription drugs, attempting to implement single payer, regulating competition, and limiting high health costs. In Part 1 of our review, we covered how the legislature banned pharmacy gag clauses and limited out of pocket expenses but failed to implement single payer. This time, we’ll look at 2017-2018 bills that sought …
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Litigation and Enforcement Highlights – January 2019
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor January 15, 2019
Happy 2019! In this New Years issue, we recap the final litigation and enforcement moments of 2018. In antitrust litigation, we look closer at a major developing lawsuit that brings anticompetitive generic drug pricing practices into the national spotlight. Also, two federal appeals courts weighed in on antitrust litigation in the commercial health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, respectively. In enforcement action, we discuss the final mega merger of 2018 and what its approval means for the healthcare market. Massive Antitrust Lawsuit Keeps Snowballing Toward Judgment Day for Generic Drugmakers …
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Healthcare Mergers and Acquisitions and What They Mean for the Patient
Guest Author January 14, 2019
Recent trends: In the early 2000s, it appeared that the only healthcare establishments looking to merge were those with no other alternative; it was a case of merge or go out of business. Well, the situation has changed. Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity has been gradually increasing over the past decade or so, and a spike was seen in 2017, with the number of transactions (115 in 2017 compared to 2016’s 102) being the highest since the financial firm, Kaufman Hall, began monitoring it in the year 2000. Even more …
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Litigation and Enforcement Highlights – December 2018
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor December 17, 2018
November brought both good and bad news to the realm of healthcare competition. In one of the biggest developments of the year in antitrust enforcement, the Justice Department successfully settled with Atrium Health to prohibit its anti-steering practice in North Carolina. Later in the month, despite anticompetitive concerns and the potential resulting impact on healthcare prices, key states approved three mega mergers, albeit with conditions. Major North Carolina Hospital System Settles Anti-Steering Suit with DOJ, Encourages Antitrust Enforcement Efforts In an ongoing anti-steering case in North Carolina,[1] the state’s …
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Source Short: CVS Aetna Merger Not a Done Deal
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher December 13, 2018
In November 2018, The Source reported that CVS was finalizing its merger with Aetna after getting approval from the Justice Department. In the past two weeks, however, statements by Judge Richard Leon, a judge from the US District Court for the District of Columbia, have made that merger less certain. The approval from the Justice Department is conditional until approved by the courts. As a result, Judge Leon could rule to prevent the merger, but because the transaction already closed,[1] some legal experts have called untangling the companies akin to …
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California Attorney General Conditionally Approves Merger of Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher December 4, 2018
On November 21, 2018, the California Attorney General conditionally approved the Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) merger. The new merger would result in a new $28.4 billion organization called CommonSpirit Health.[1] CommonSpirit will operate 139 hospitals and 700 care sites nationwide, including 30 hospitals in California.[2] According to the California Attorney General’s press release, CommonSpirit Health must maintain emergency services and women’s healthcare services for ten years, and the AG has the right to review the impact of any changes to these services. CommonSpirit Health must also create …
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