“When Hospitals Merge, Patients Often Pay More” doesn’t paint a full picture of the root cause of higher health care costs to consumers. For example, the article’s findings are inconsistent with a recent study in Health Affairs that concluded that insurers are responsible for health premium growth (50% higher). A recent lawsuit filed in Florida is indicative of the lack of competition among commercial insurers. The suit against a health insurer that controls 75 percent of the state’s market, claims anticompetitive behavior for trying to keep a new innovative competitor out of the market in order to maintain market dominance.
In addition, an economic study from Charles Rivers Associates showed that hospitals were able to cut annual operating expenses by 2.5 percent per patient admission after a merger or acquisition. At the same time, hospitals and health systems have slowed price growth to under 2 percent during each of the last four years, despite the fact that government programs do not cover the cost of care.
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