Health care costs

A look at recent policy developments that bear on private equity in health care, and their potential impacts on this growing form of commercial activity in health care markets. More

Context: Who pays for health care—and who owns it—determine what care is delivered, who receives it, and who profits from it. We examined trends… More

Context: There is a growing trend of combinations among hospital systems that operate in different geographic markets known as cross-market mergers.… More

As private equity firms have bought up billions of dollars in medical practices, home care agencies, and more over the last two decades, they have become a force in US health care. In a new Opinion, John E. McDonough of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health chronicles the increasing role of private equity firms in the health care economy and its negative impact on patient mortality, patient costs, jobs, quality of care, and facilities closure. More

For decades, corporate mergers and consolidations in the US health care system were like the weather—complain all you want because you can’t do anything about them.  More

Context: Most-favored-nation (MFN) contract clauses have recently garnered attention from both Congress and state legislatures looking for ways to… More

Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania proposes taxing employment-based health insurance plans for high-income people only in this guest Opinion. More

Context: Rising prescription drug costs are consuming a growing proportion of state and private budgets. In response, lawmakers have experimented with… More