House Judiciary Hears Competing Views On Rural Hospital Merger Effects

The House Judiciary Committee heard competing views from stakeholders on the effects of rural hospital mergers: Economics and health policy experts testified to sympathetic lawmakers that the mergers hurt competition and thus hike prices and lower quality, but the American Hospital Association argued in a statement that rural hospital mergers improve value-based care. Martin Gaynor, a professor of economics and health policy at Carnegie Mellon University, told the panel at a Thursday (March 7) hearing that hospital acquisition of physician...