Strapped FTC Fails To Fully Scrutinize Hospital Mergers: Study
A new study finds that the FTC does not have enough money or staff to properly review proposed hospital acquisitions for antitrust risks, which has led to higher health care prices and less industry competition. Other FTC news relates to price fixing.
Stat:
Anticompetitive Hospital Mergers Skate By Due To FTC’s Shallow Resources
Over the past two decades, hundreds of hospital mergers have escaped federal antitrust scrutiny and led to both higher prices and less competition, a new study shows. (Herman, 4/24)
KFF Health News:
FTC Chief Says Tech Advancements Risk Health Care Price Fixing
New technologies are making it easier for companies to fix prices and discriminate against individual consumers, the Biden administration’s top consumer watchdog said Tuesday. Algorithms make it possible for companies to fix prices without explicitly coordinating with one another, posing a new test for regulators policing the market, said Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, during a media event hosted by KFF. “I think we could be entering a somewhat novel era of pricing,” Khan told reporters. (Rovner and Hilzenrath, 4/23)
Modern Healthcare:
Cross-Market Mergers Can Raise Prices By 12% For Patients: Study
Regulators have largely overlooked merger proposals that involve health systems operating in different markets, but new research shows those that acquired out-of-market hospitals tended to increase prices. Larger health systems that purchased hospitals at least 50 miles away increased prices by 12.9% after six years relative to a peer group of hospitals not involved in mergers or acquisitions, according to a study published Tuesday in Health Services Research. (Kacik, 4/23)
Also —
Modern Healthcare:
20M Fewer Medicaid Enrollees Means Trouble For Providers
Over the past year, states have removed more than 20 million beneficiaries from Medicaid after suspending eligibility redeterminations during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Thousands of those people are Clinica Family Health patients. The Lafayette, Colorado-based community health center felt the pain of lost reimbursements when patients went from having Medicaid coverage to being uninsured, a fate that has befallen almost one-fourth of these former Medicaid enrollees nationwide, according to KFF. (Tepper, 4/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Oracle Plans To Move Headquarters To Nashville
Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison announced on Tuesday that the company is relocating its world headquarters to Nashville as part of a strategic move aimed at being closer to the epicenter of the healthcare industry. The move follows the tech giant’s previous relocation from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas. (Vaziri, 4/23)
Modern Healthcare:
Health First Taps Adventist HealthCare's Terry Forde As CEO
Terry Forde will leave his post as president and CEO of Adventist HealthCare in August to take on the same roles at Florida health system Health First, Adventist said Tuesday. Forde has been with Adventist since 2011. The Gaithersburg, Maryland-based health system said it will begin a search for his successor. (DeSilva, 4/23)
Stat:
HCA Healthcare Plans Broader Rollout Of Augmedix AI Scribe In ER
HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the United States, is planning to expand the use of an artificial intelligence tool to document doctor-patient interactions in its emergency rooms. (Trang, 4/24)
WUSF:
Organ Transplants Are Up At Tampa General Hospital, But Demand Remains High
Tampa General's Transplant Institute had a record year, due in part to innovative technology that expands the donor pool. But thousands of Floridians are still waiting for help. (Colombini, 4/23)
