Outlines Policy Solutions to Address Hospital Monopolies

Washington DC – Today, the Open Markets Institute released The Role of Hospital Monopolies in America’s Health Care Crisis, which presents insights into how the astronomically high cost of health care in the United States is a result of increasing corporate concentration of hospital ownership. 

“Hospital consolidation can lead in some instances to economies of scale and better-integrated care.  Yet in the absence of coherent policies for managing competition, the real-world results of corporate concentration in health care have been hospital closures, increased prices, and loss of choice for health care consumers,” said Open Markets Policy Director Phil Longman. 

The report exposes how local monopolies that now dominate health care delivery present a deep threat to meaningful health care reform, as their impact on jobs and health in local communities gives these hospital monopolies a heavy sway over legislators. 

Some solutions included in the report are to:

• Allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to more effectively regulate hospital consolidation 

• Require state or federal notification of physician acquisition 

• Update anti-kickback legislation 

• Set hospital prices in highly consolidated areas

• End price discrimination 

Read the full report here. For more information:

America’s Concentration Crisis

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