Hospitals have struck deals in recent years to form local and regional health systems that use their reach to bargain for higher prices from insurers. Employers have often passed the higher rates onto employees.
….
Hospital mergers make the price pressures worse.
“When those hospitals have market power, they can use that to extract high prices from insurers and those costs are ultimately passed onto consumers,” said Amanda Starc, an associate professor of strategy at Northwestern University, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
The True Cost of Megamergers in Healthcare: Higher Prices – WSJ
This was obvious – where I lived, once the ACA passed, we saw hospitals and medical clinics merge, as well as insurance companies merging with one another. Each was bulking up to negotiate better deals (for themselves). Merged hospitals were able to negotiate higher payments, which eventually ended up as higher premiums paid by employees/employers and the individual market.
I predicted this outcome but was dismissed as not knowing what I was talking about. Oh well.
