In the wake of Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem's proposed merger, America's Health Insurance Plans is leading the charge to prevent this and similar mergers and acquisitions.
In the wake of Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem’s proposed merger, which would form the largest integrated healthcare delivery system in Illinois, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is leading the charge to prevent this and similar mergers and acquisitions.
The new Advocate NorthShore Health Partners (ANHP) would serve 3 million patients as well as nearly a quarter of the hospital care market in the Chicago area, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. In some suburbs, ANHP will command as much as 40%. Holding such a large market share would give the new system more leverage in contract negotiations.
According to AHIP, such consolidation only brings greater costs. The organization has taken issue with the idea that health reform means greater consolidation of providers.
“Recognizing the harmful consequences of anticompetitive provider consolidation on consumers and the overall healthcare system, the health plan community is committed to developing innovative ways to improve care management and control costs,” Alicia Caramenico wrote in an AHIP blog post.
Earlier this year ProMedica, based in Ohio, was ordered to unravel its acquisition of St. Luke’s Hospital because the merger would result in higher prices due to less competition in the market, according to Forbes.
The Advocate-NorthShore deal is still subject to review by the Federal Trade Commission, as well the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.
“Bigger hospitals really only mean bigger bills for patients,” Brendan Buck, vice president of communications at AHIP, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Consolidation promises greater efficiency, but all that ever materializes is greater costs.”
Caramenico pointed to Partners HealthCare in Boston, a system of 8 hospitals, which is large enough to drive up healthcare prices. The health system’s prices are 60% higher than competing hospitals that are providing the same services. Ultimately, that pushes up the cost for everyone.
An Overview of Health Care and Pharmaceutical Trends, 2023-2024
April 19th 2024Douglas M. Long, BA, MBA, was featured as the keynote speaker on the closing day of The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy 2024 annual meeting, with a session dedicated to surveying the health care and pharmaceutical trends of the last year.
Read More
Government agencies have created an online portal for the public to report potential anticompetitive practices in health care; there are changes coming to the “boxed warning” section for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR T) to highlight T-cell blood cancer risk; questions about the safety of obesity medications during pregnancy have arisen in women on them who previously struggled with fertility issues.
Read More
Pegcetacoplan for PNH More Cost-Effective Than Anti-C5 Monoclonal Antibodies
April 18th 2024A cost-utility analysis conducted from the perspective of the Italian health system found that pegcetacoplan was more effective and less costly than 2 complement 5 (C5) inhibitors for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH).
Read More