Hospital M&A Getting Tough (But Misguided) Scrutiny From Lawmakers

As us in “the biz” know, the pace of hospital M&A isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. Hospitals are huddling together to scale up for countless reasons.

The reasons for hospital consolidation are just about unstoppable, of course, as they include  a) well-founded fears regarding reform, b) trouble carrying the capital capital costs involved in scaling up health IT infrastructure, c) long-term trends squeezing hospital margins and d) the need to participate effectively  in ACOs, HIEs and other alphabet soup organizations.

Unless the government takes over the entire healthcare system and spends these factors away, they’ll push execs into the arms of their peers regardless of what federal policies roll out.  Yes, the FTC can put mergers on hold, and notably, has gone medieval on a few mergers just to prove it can, but let’s not pretend it has the resources to slow hospital consolidation dealflow much either.

So, I must say I was sort of amused to learn that members of the  House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health took a  stern look at hospital dealmaking and consolidation last month.  You know, to me it’s like standing in a flooded basement in a rainstorm and focusing on a few cracks in the wall — but I digress.

At the hearing, an economics and health policy professor named Martin Gaynor testified that consolidation was picking up speed. He also asserted that studies show hospital prices going up meaningfully whenever hospital markets consolidate.

Geez, Professor Gaynor, you say that like it’s a bad thing! Doesn’t classical economics allow for the supply side folks to work together too, without breaking the system? Whoops, I digress again.

The hearing, which took place in September, also included data from a Rand Corp. study noting that health plans were consolidating dramatically, and that these mergers were giving health plans too much power.  (Wow, imagine that — health plans having too much power?)

Oh, Lord, why does all of this seem beside the point?  Well, probably because it’s not going to help anyone.  Sure, knowing  what impact hospital M&A is having is part of a well-informed Health Subcommittee’s job description.  And I appreciate that the Subcommittee is trying to look at the bigger picture, one which includes both health insurers and hospitals.

But hearings like this, which assume that pricing indicators are the best way to decide whether the public good is being served, strike me as painfully uninformed. While I’m no economist, I have seen a few deals come and go, and some ill-considered attempts to control dealflow too. After following the health market for decades, I’m convinced that playing Whack-A-Mole and slapping down those “bad guys” who are overcharging/underpaying gets us nowhere.

 

   

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