Health Care Consolidation

Increasingly, hospitals have merged to form dominant health systems that can exert market power and charge anticompetitive prices that burden the… More

This brief explains how the provisions are used in practice to stifle competition, describes the variation in state laws, and offers best practices to state policymakers seeking to address provider market power. More

This brief, the second in a series on health care consolidation, examines the variation in state merger review practices across the country and identify the key elements of a comprehensive state merger review framework. More

This blog post discusses President Biden’s recent executive order, which illustrates the administration’s focus on revitalizing competition across the country through a “whole of government” approach that encourages the federal agencies to leverage their knowledge, data, and resources in support of competition. More

In the first of a series of three Milbank issue briefs, Katherine L. Gudiksen, Alexandra D. Montague, and Jaime S. King of The Source for Healthcare Price and Competition describe actions taken by federal and state policymakers to address the consequences of health care provider concentration through increased price transparency, improved merger review, oversight of anticompetitive conduct, and increased competition through a public option. More

Nevertheless, with the passage of the No Surprises Act in December 2020, Congress took several steps to protect those most acutely impacted by our system’s lack of transparency and to invest in state data capacity to better understand local health care markets. More

Rob Waters explores whether the Sutter Health settlement in California can serve as a roadmap for other states looking to control rising health care prices, as well as broader efforts for reining in hospital price inflation, such as antimerger legislation and the use of state price controls. More

The pursuit of value over volume remains an epic quest in health care. Motivated to discourage overutilization of services, and by the importance of… More

The recent settlement of the antitrust lawsuits against the Sutter Health System in California could be a watershed moment in the evolution of US health care markets and public policy, says Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health in a new Milbank blog post. More