Something The Ma Attorney Full General Should Read
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
She won't, of course. But perchance the 2 candidates for Attorney General, John Miller as well as Maura Healey, will. Speaking of which, when is around reporter inward Massachusetts going to enquire them the next questions--and insist on "yes" or "no" equally the answers--so nosotros tin encounter where each stands on the major economical as well as wellness attention number facing the state:
1) Do y'all believe the Court should approve the village bargain offered yesteryear the Attorney General with regard to Partners Healthcare System's acquisition of novel hospitals?
2) If y'all are elected on Nov 4, volition y'all asking the incumbent AG to enquire for a delay inward the Nov. 10 hearing on this matter, to hand y'all a direct chances to review it as well as convey input earlier the Court?
Now to the article. Suzanne Delbanco has been a great observer of healthcare issues for many years. In this latest column at the Wall Street Journal, she summarizes the adverse touching of manufacture consolidation. Excerpts:
Health-care costs are going up, as well as there's a lot of debate virtually why. Is it the high cost of drugs or our aging population? Is it Americans' insistence on having the newest, most high-tech care? Each of these may contribute to rise costs. But a closed hold off at the information reveals that ane ingredient is increasing costs inward recent years to a greater extent than than anything else: consolidation alongside hospitals as well as doctors.
Consolidation way many things, from the merger of 2 hospitals or wellness systems to an acquisition of a physician grouping yesteryear a hospital. Generally, however, when providers consolidate, mortal insurers destination upward paying to a greater extent than for services. Nationwide, payments to hospitals on behalf of the privately insured are an estimated 3% higher equally a effect of consolidation, according to a 2012 report yesteryear my organization, Catalyst for Payment Reform. That may audio small, only 3% of the almost $900 billion the USA spends on infirmary attention each yr is a hefty chunk of change.
Yet many doctors as well as hospitals fence that health-care reform, with its emphasis on attention coordination, compels them to consolidate. After all, novel models nether the Affordable Care Act for delivering care, such equally accountable-care organizations, quest doctors as well as hospitals to run together to coordinate as well as ameliorate patient attention as well as trim spending. Some providers fighting that mergers allow them hit economies of scale as well as ameliorate efficiency, enabling them to decrease costs as well as ameliorate care.
There is no evidence to back upward such claims. For example, when mergers occur inward already concentrated markets, cost increases tin move yesteryear 20%, equally 2012 research yesteryear the Federal Trade Commission's Martin Gaynor as well as University of Pennsylvania professor Robert Town showed. The authors likewise institute that "physician-hospital consolidation has non led to either improved lineament or reduced costs."
1) Do y'all believe the Court should approve the village bargain offered yesteryear the Attorney General with regard to Partners Healthcare System's acquisition of novel hospitals?
2) If y'all are elected on Nov 4, volition y'all asking the incumbent AG to enquire for a delay inward the Nov. 10 hearing on this matter, to hand y'all a direct chances to review it as well as convey input earlier the Court?
Now to the article. Suzanne Delbanco has been a great observer of healthcare issues for many years. In this latest column at the Wall Street Journal, she summarizes the adverse touching of manufacture consolidation. Excerpts:
Health-care costs are going up, as well as there's a lot of debate virtually why. Is it the high cost of drugs or our aging population? Is it Americans' insistence on having the newest, most high-tech care? Each of these may contribute to rise costs. But a closed hold off at the information reveals that ane ingredient is increasing costs inward recent years to a greater extent than than anything else: consolidation alongside hospitals as well as doctors.
Consolidation way many things, from the merger of 2 hospitals or wellness systems to an acquisition of a physician grouping yesteryear a hospital. Generally, however, when providers consolidate, mortal insurers destination upward paying to a greater extent than for services. Nationwide, payments to hospitals on behalf of the privately insured are an estimated 3% higher equally a effect of consolidation, according to a 2012 report yesteryear my organization, Catalyst for Payment Reform. That may audio small, only 3% of the almost $900 billion the USA spends on infirmary attention each yr is a hefty chunk of change.
Yet many doctors as well as hospitals fence that health-care reform, with its emphasis on attention coordination, compels them to consolidate. After all, novel models nether the Affordable Care Act for delivering care, such equally accountable-care organizations, quest doctors as well as hospitals to run together to coordinate as well as ameliorate patient attention as well as trim spending. Some providers fighting that mergers allow them hit economies of scale as well as ameliorate efficiency, enabling them to decrease costs as well as ameliorate care.
There is no evidence to back upward such claims. For example, when mergers occur inward already concentrated markets, cost increases tin move yesteryear 20%, equally 2012 research yesteryear the Federal Trade Commission's Martin Gaynor as well as University of Pennsylvania professor Robert Town showed. The authors likewise institute that "physician-hospital consolidation has non led to either improved lineament or reduced costs."