Health care provider consolidation and the growth of health systems are generating growing interest and attention by policy makers. Over the past decade-plus, hundreds of hospital groups have combined, following a trend toward consolidation and vertical integration across the American economy. According to the American Hospital Association, nearly 1,600 hospital transactions took place between 1998 and 2017. Health system market power is now more concentrated than ever: in most regional markets, two or three players control most of the inpatient facilities and in a majority of U.S. metro areas, one hospital system controls more than half the market. The motivations and likely outcomes of this trend toward consolidation and expanded systems are subject to debate. Hospitals underscore as benefits of joining systems the capacity to serve larger populations more efficiently by focusing on population health management to improve outcomes and reduce costs. A competing view is that by consolidating into ever larger systems which ties all system members together for contracting purposes potentially endows system members with market power that can lead to higher prices that must be paid by commercial health plans and result in higher health insurance premiums to consumers.
While there is a growing literature on the growth and potential effects of expansion of consolidated health care systems, it is still limited. This Research Topic is designed to provide a venue for current and emerging research related to this important policy area.
Sub-themes for this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
- Health Care Prices: Measurement, Trends, and Determinants
- Health Care Market Structure: Measurement, Trends, Impacts
- Health Care Systems: Structure, Trends, Performance, Impacts on Market Structure and Functioning
- Alternative Payment Models and Health Care Market Structure
- Out of Network Emergency Services: Trends, Policies, Impacts
- Public Policy Addressing Consolidation: Trends, Policies, and Impacts.
Health care provider consolidation and the growth of health systems are generating growing interest and attention by policy makers. Over the past decade-plus, hundreds of hospital groups have combined, following a trend toward consolidation and vertical integration across the American economy. According to the American Hospital Association, nearly 1,600 hospital transactions took place between 1998 and 2017. Health system market power is now more concentrated than ever: in most regional markets, two or three players control most of the inpatient facilities and in a majority of U.S. metro areas, one hospital system controls more than half the market. The motivations and likely outcomes of this trend toward consolidation and expanded systems are subject to debate. Hospitals underscore as benefits of joining systems the capacity to serve larger populations more efficiently by focusing on population health management to improve outcomes and reduce costs. A competing view is that by consolidating into ever larger systems which ties all system members together for contracting purposes potentially endows system members with market power that can lead to higher prices that must be paid by commercial health plans and result in higher health insurance premiums to consumers.
While there is a growing literature on the growth and potential effects of expansion of consolidated health care systems, it is still limited. This Research Topic is designed to provide a venue for current and emerging research related to this important policy area.
Sub-themes for this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
- Health Care Prices: Measurement, Trends, and Determinants
- Health Care Market Structure: Measurement, Trends, Impacts
- Health Care Systems: Structure, Trends, Performance, Impacts on Market Structure and Functioning
- Alternative Payment Models and Health Care Market Structure
- Out of Network Emergency Services: Trends, Policies, Impacts
- Public Policy Addressing Consolidation: Trends, Policies, and Impacts.