Healthcare Economist April 8, 2019
A policy paper by the HHS describing proposals to promote choice and competition in health care. Before getting into policy recommendations, however, it outlines how increased provider consolidation has lead to less choice.
One recent study by Gaynor et al. …found that the mean HHI [Herfindahl-Hirschman Index] across MSAs in the inpatient hospital industry increased from 2,370 in 1987 to 3,261 in 2006—an increase of more than 900 points. It also found that most of this increase had occurred by the year 2000
Physicians also have been consolidating. While the trend is not a severe as in inpatient hospital care, it is happening, but market concentration does vary across specialties. One study found that:
…median two firm...
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