News Clips
Modern Healthcare: (1/18) – Federal antitrust agencies asked for input in how to bolster merger oversight, the FTC and Justice Department announced. The regulatory "overhaul" will address how markets are defined in merger analyses to factor in non-price related consequences, the breadth of the oversight, the separation of the vertical and horizontal guidelines, the presumption that vertical mergers are beneficial and worker-specific impacts of mergers, among other issues. Both the horizontal and vertical merger guidelines need to be updated to reflect the latest transaction trends and market imbalances, healthcare experts said.
Becker's ASC Review: (1/18) – Physician practices are selling to hospitals and corporate entities at an accelerated rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. But what happens to healthcare when there is increased consolidation and less competition? Several studies over the past decade have examined these trends finding increased hospital costs, increased insurance prices and decreased quality of care.
Fierce Healthcare: (1/18) –The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic are taking a toll on doctors both at work and beyond practicing medicine. Physician happiness fell 22 percent during the pandemic, and there was a 188 percent jump in doctors noting they are “somewhat” or “very” unhappy. These were the findings of the newly released Medscape 2022 Physician Lifestyle and Happiness Report, which surveyed more than 13,000 U.S.-based doctors across 29 specialties between June and September 2021.
Forbes: (1/17) – Consolidation of hospitals slowed a bit last year but the size of the deals was of the “mega-merger” variety in which even the seller had $1 billion in annual revenues, a new analysis shows. Consulting firm Kaufman Hall’s analysis of 2021 mergers, acquisitions between hospitals and health systems shows “the number of transactions was down but the size of the transactions was up.”
Modern Healthcare: (1/14) – The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission thinks a new model with different risk tracks and administratively-set savings benchmarks could be the way forward for population-based alternative payment models. MedPAC staff provided commissioners with a blueprint for a hypothetical new three-track alternative payment model. The model would divide providers into three separate categories. Independent physician practices, small safety net providers or rural providers, could be in a track that involves no financial risk.
Modern Healthcare: (1/14) – About 11 percent of the nation's health systems are big-time over-utilizers of low-value services, according to a Johns Hopkins University study published in JAMA. Health systems that employ fewer primary care physicians, have higher bed counts or are investor-owned are associated with more unneeded care, researchers at Johns Hopkins' medical and public health schools found. Unnecessary procedures, tests and screenings are linked to lower quality of care and worse patient and worker safety, and drive up healthcare costs.
Fierce Healthcare: (1/14) – Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency for another 90 days, extending key flexibilities for providers still grappling with the pandemic. The public health emergency was first ordered back in January 2020 and was set to expire after Jan. 16.
Modern Healthcare: (1/13) – Medicare payment advisors unanimously approved a recommendation Thursday to update hospital payment by two percent for fiscal 2023, and to keep physician fee schedule payment stagnant next year. But members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission continued to voice concerns about the long-term viability of the current physician fee schedule model, which they say isn't keeping up with inflation during a particularly volatile time for healthcare providers.
Business Insider: (1/11) – CVS Health has set its sights on being your doctor. But CVS has stopped short of employing physicians to provide primary care. Now its CEO Karen Lynch says the company's ready to fill in that missing puzzle piece, and it's eyeing potential acquisitions and partnerships with clinic operators to help it get there fast.
Fierce Healthcare: (1/10) –Though there were fewer mergers and acquisitions among hospitals and health systems in 2021, the size of the transactions was greater, a new analysis has found. The analysis, put out by Kaufman Hall, determined that eight of 49 (16 percent) transactions in 2021 were considered megamergers, where the seller or smaller partner averaged $1 billion in annual revenues. That’s nearly double the percentage of these types of transactions in 2020, and also the highest in six years. Most transactions, however, saw the smaller partner’s revenue between $100 million and $500 million.
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