Editor’s Note: FTC should note that any resultant studies must comply with the Data Quality Act.
United States: Is The FTC Setting Its Sights On Consummated Hospital And Physician Mergers?
MONDAQ
Article by Jonathan L. Lewis and Lee H. Simowitz
Monthly Archives: August 2013
Editor’s Note: Our readers are invited to post their views on the increasing demand for hospital consolidation to achieve economies of scale in order to offset the reduction in federal reimbursement.
Missouri hospitals join consolidation trend in $3.9B deal
Community Health Systems Inc. plans to buy Health Management Associates Inc. for nearly $4 billion in a deal that would make it one of the nation’s largest hospital operators and double its stake in Missouri’s rural hospitals.
The proposed purchase would include newly built Poplar BluffRegionalMedicalCenter, a key provider of health services to the poor in several rural counties of southeast Missouri.
Editor’s Note: Articles such as this are long on assertions but short on facts regarding price increases associatied with hospital consolidation.
Patients see higher bills after doctors sell practices
CNBC
By: Dan Mangan |
Martin Barraud | OJO+ | Getty Images
The doctor might be the same, but her bill’s going to be higher.
A strong trend of hospitals buying up physicians practices as well as hospital mergers is threatening to also drive up costs to patients—at least in the short term.