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By Joe Carlson and Melanie Evans

 With the Federal Trade Commission showing renewed interest in policing mergers among healthcare providers, Chairwoman Edith Ramirez appointed noted healthcare economist Martin Gaynor to lead the commission’s Economics Bureau.

Gaynor will join the FTC from Carnegie Mellon University, where he holds a chair in health systems management at Heinz College. Gaynor will head a division of the FTC that produces economic analyses to support antitrust and consumer-protection investigations.

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Editor’ s Note:  In a very concise article Ms. Livio has  framed  the  major issues surrounding hospital consolidation. The bottom line is that often prices  do increase when hospitals merge but  for a number of reasons that benefit the patient and/or  are  beyond the control of the hospital. 

We welcome the Robert Wood  Johnson Foundation University Hospital  to the growing family of hospital consolidations . We also note the report the Foundation  financed, so referenced herein , which clearly states that prices often increase as a result of hospital consolidation. We believe the said report needs to be  expanded  to address the reasons  for the justifiable  price increases as outlined in the following article  by Ms. Livio of the New Jersey Star Ledger and in the CRE White Paper on Hospital Consolidation.

Irving, TX (PRWEB) September 23, 2013

Two VHA SupplyNetworks affiliated with VHA Inc., the national health care network, recently consolidated to form the Mid-Atlantic Purchasing Coalition (MAPC), which represents 26 health care organizations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Through this merger, participating hospitals can aggregate purchasing volumes and achieve greater cost savings. On the heels of this successful merger, nine New York hospitals participating in the Empire-Metro Sourcing Collaborative and two regional members also joined MAPC.

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Wave of hospital mergers will continue, CEOs say

Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Urgent Care Centers & Others: Where Do Ancillary Services Stand in the Race for Consolidation? Becker’s Hospital Review

Scott Becker, JD, CPA & Carrie Pallardy

While the hospital consolidation market continues to move at a rapid pace, the market for consolidation of ancillary services providers appears to be moving at a slower and more uneven pace. In the hospital market, there are large systems that are trying to develop a broader footprint to succeed in a value-based world and not have to go out-of-network. For example, earlier this year Tenet Healthcare Corp. acquired Vanguard Health Systems for a total of $4.3 billion, which gave Tenet the ability to expand into markets including San Antonio, Chicago and Detroit.

Ottawa Citizen

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With Obamacare coming, 30-plus N.J., Pa., and N.Y. hospitals form ‘alliance’

Susan K. Livio/The Star-Ledger

Driven by the demands of the Affordable Care Act, about 30 hospitals in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York’s Hudson River Valley have banded together to form what its founders describe as the largest alliance of health systems in the country, The Star-Ledger has learned.

 Hospitals are facing cuts in reimbursements from MaineCare and from the federal government’s “sequestration” cuts, as well as increases in expenses for free care, for those who cannot afford to pay for care.

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Ellen W. Todd

 Sanford New Writer

WKYC-TV

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Clinic has told workers they will be laying off an unspecified number of employees as part of an overall, sweeping cost-reduction plan.

Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove discussed the looming cuts and changes in a Wednesday morning all-employee meeting.

Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil denied circulating rumors that employees were told there would be 3,000 jobs cut.

She said any layoffs will be part of a multi-year plan to cut $330 million from the Clinic’s budget

The Clinic is the region’s largest employer with roughly 42,000 workers.

 The very prestigious The Health Care Blog posted this comment by CRE on its website:

 http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/09/17/understanding-the-hospital-consolidation-numbers-the-centrality-of-data-quality/#comments

 Comments submitted to the THCB  include:

  Responses for “Understanding the Hospital Consolidation Numbers: The Centrality of Data Quality”

xyz’er says:

The DQA is an interesting approach – not sure much attention has gone into looking at this aspect of ACA …

Brad F says:

Bruce
Can you give a clearer example of why a study like the one above concerns you?

Based on the lit, hospitals consolidating and winning gains against providers goes beyond theory and is far from an anathema to those who follow the marketplace.