Plan and Provider Consolidation:
Better Coordination or Price Gouging?

Consolidation is taking place throughout the healthcare system at an increasing rate, involving providers, insurers and manufacturers alike. Merging entities often tout benefits including cost savings and increased care coordination, but serious concerns about market power also need to be raised  It is critically important to scrutinize future mergers because of their impact on an already excessively concentrated healthcare market.

Below are resources to learn more about plan and provider consolidation.

From the Healthcare Value Hub and Consumers Union

• Hub Research Brief No. 10, Plan and Provider Consolidation: Better Coordination or Price Gouging? (coming soon)
• Hub glossary of related terms
• Proposed Health Plan Mergers: State Summary (January 2016)
• Hub Research Brief No. 4, A Primer: How Antitrust Law Affects Competition in the Healthcare Marketplace
• Consumers Union, statement to the California Department of Managed Healthcare on the proposed merger of Ventene Corporation and Health Net of California (Dec. 14, 2015).
• Consumers Union, statement to the California Department of Managed Healthcare on the proposed material modification concerning the acquisition of Humana by Aetna (Jan. 8, 2016).

In the News

State attorneys general joining probe of health insurer mergers, Reuters (Jan. 11, 2016)