I spoke recently about the doctors charge that was titled Same Doctor Visit, Double the Cost. In reality, the cost was really four times as much, since the practice had been purchased by a hospital.
Now, obviously the hospitals are purchasing doctors practices to make a profit, but 400%?
So, now the California Attorney General has decided to look into this trend in healthcare, and if you're interested, the article is attached.
"California's attorney general has launched a broad investigation into whether growing consolidation among hospitals and doctor groups is pushing up the price of medical care, reflecting increasing scrutiny by antitrust regulators of medical-provider deals.
The office of the attorney general, Kamala D. Harris, has sent subpoenas, known as civil investigative demands, to several big hospital operators in the state, including San Francisco-based Dignity Health and San Diego's Scripps Health and Sharp HealthCare. Northern California's 24-hospital Sutter Health system has also received one, as has Santa Barbara-based Cottage Health System, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Subpoenas have also gone to major California health insurers, those people said.
The probe, which has been under way for several months, is examining hospital systems' reimbursement from the insurers, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The regulator appears to be focusing on whether the systems' tie-ups with physicians, as well as ownership of hospitals, have given them the market power to boost prices in a way that violates antitrust law, these people said.
Nationally, health-care providers are rapidly merging into bigger health systems, moves that they say will improve efficiency. The number of hospital deals last year, 86, was the biggest since 2000, according to Irving Levin Associates, a research firm that tracks health-care transactions."
Click here to read the full article.
J. Robert Saron
President
Bovie Medical Corporation
Photo courtesy of: www.online.wsj.com
