The Research on Hospital Mergers
The American Hospital Association (AHA) released a commissioned study last week citing evidence that hospital mergers and acquisitions reduced patient costs and improved care. At Yale, a group of health economists hosted a discussion soon after to discuss how hospital consolidation actually raised prices and worsened the quality of care.
The health economists webinar on September 4 with Zack Cooper (Yale/ISPS), Stuart Craig, (Ph.D. candidate at Wharton), Martin Gaynor (Carnegie Mellon), and John Van Reenen (MIT) cited several studies and their own study, proving that the cost of care went up and the quality went down in markets with less competition.
Read more in Modern Healthcare.
To view the economists’ discussion, sign in here (email required).