Problems with hospital consolidation
August 13, 2023
KFF Health News published an informative perspective on the consolidation of hospitals and medical practices. "75% of markets are now considered highly consolidated — [which] decreases patient choice, impedes innovation, erodes quality, and raises prices. Apparently, judges have previously ruled in favor of these hospital mergers frequently enough (citing their non-profit status) that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opted to not challenge many of these mergers in previous decades.
Although the current administration has ordered the FTC to be more aggressive about hospital mergers, the current landscape seems problematic (even if consolidation does not get worse). Legally forcing some of these systems to break apart and have different parts compete against each other seems difficult. Additionally, the perspective pointed out that these large health systems employ many people and now have political clout that can help them avoid scrutiny. A few states were listed as protecting the health system mergers from regulatory oversight.