Becker's Healthcare November 11, 2025
Health systems, physician groups and payers are merging into increasingly large and complex corporate structures, KFF Health News reported Nov. 10.
This has been a significant factor in the ever-increasing price of healthcare for consumers and created an “era of high-deductible health plans, narrow insurance networks and 20% cost sharing,” according to the report. Barak Richman, a professor of business law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., told the publication that these news mergers are “mutually enforced monopolization.”
“It’s not a competition. It’s more like collusion. They don’t care about price,” he said. For example, a dose of the antiviral Paxlovid administered in a hospital costs $4,500, and joint replacements can cost $100,000, according to KFF.
At the...
Today's Sponsors
Today's Sponsor