Podcast: Vilsa Curto on Vertical Integration’s Effect on Health Care Prices

The health care sector has gone through various waves of consolidation with hospitals purchasing physician practices and hospitals, physicians, and health insurers merging with each other.

We’re in the midst of a wave of consolidation.

Two years ago, Health Affairs published a paper that found more than half of US physicians and 72 percent of surveyed hospitals were affiliated with one of 637 health systems in 2018. More recently, some have estimated that the 10 largest health systems now control about a quarter of the health care market.

Consolidation...