New Podcast: Cross-Market Mergers and the Next Frontier in Healthcare Antitrust
The Source's Katie Gudiksen joined Jaime King and host Andréa Caballero of Catalyst for Payment Reform on the latest episode of Listening In (With Permission) to discuss cross-market hospital mergers and the challenges they pose for antitrust enforcement.
In the conversation, Gudiksen and King explain why mergers between hospitals in separate geographic areas have become the leading form of hospital consolidation, and why these deals can raise prices even though the combining systems do not compete for the same patients. The higher prices come from two reinforcing sources: the market power these systems accumulate, and the contracting practices they can impose once they have it. Gudiksen and King also look at how federal enforcers and, more and more, state attorneys general have responded, why fixes like temporary price caps tend to wear off while the market power stays put, and how employers can push back, both by filing their own antitrust suits and by handing regulators claims data and testimony.
Listen to Episode 151 of Listening In (With Permission): Apple Podcasts | SoundCloud
For a deeper dive, see our Cross-Market Systems page.
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