• Home
  • Economics
  • Dentistry
  • Health sciences
  • Dentist in Ulsoor
    • General Dentistry in Bangalore
    • Dental Implants in Bangalore
    • Orthodontics in Bangalore
    • Root Canal Treatment in Bangalore
    • Cosmetic Dentistry in Bangalore
    • Painless Dentistry in Bangalore
    • Prosthodontics in Bangalore
    • Oral Surgery in Bangalore
    • X-ray diagnostics in Bangalore
    • Dr Supriya Ebenezer
    • Dr Vinay V Kumar
  • Dentist in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Cosmetic treatment in Bangalore
    • Dental Treatment in Bangalore
    • Hair fall treatment in Bangalore
    • Teeth Whitening in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Root Canals in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Oral Surgery in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Invisalign® in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • General Dentistry in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Emergency Dentistry in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Dentures & Crowns in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Dental Implants in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Cosmetic Dentistry in Ramamurthy Nagar
    • Braces & Orthodontics in Ramamurthy Nagar
Tech News, Magazine & Review WordPress Theme 2017
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Science Control - Health & Technology Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home Uncategorized

Matthew’s health care tidbits: Hospital System Concentration is a Money Machine

Dr. Rockson by Dr. Rockson
April 18, 2022
in Uncategorized
2 min read
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Each week I’ve been adding a brief tidbits section to the THCB Reader, our weekly newsletter that summarizes the best of THCB that week (Sign up here!). Then I had the brainwave to add them to the blog. They’re short and usually not too sweet! –Matthew Holt

For today’s health care tidbits, there’s an old chestnut that I can’t seem to stay away from. I was triggered by three articles this week. Merril Goozner on GoozNews looked at the hospital building boom. Meanwhile perennial favorite Sutter Health and its price-making ability came up in a report showing that 11 of the 19 most expensive hospital markets were in N. Cal where it’s dominant. Finally the Gist newsletter pointed out that almost all the actual profits of the big health systems came from their investing activities rather than their operations.

None of this is any great surprise. Over the past three decades, the big hospital systems have become more concentrated in their markets. They’ve acquired smaller community hospitals and, more importantly, feeder systems of primary care doctors. Meanwhile they’ve cut deals with and acquired specialty practices. For more than two decades now, owned-physicians have been the loss leader and hospitals have made money on their high cost inpatient services, and increasingly on what used to be inpatient services which are now delivered in outpatient settings at essentially inpatient rates. Prices, though, have not fallen – as the HCCI report shows.

Source: HCCI

The overall cost of care, now more and more delivered in these increasingly oligopolistic health systems, continues to increase. Consequently so do overall insurance premiums, costs for self insured employers and employees, and out of pocket costs. And as a by-product, the reserves of those health systems, invested like and by hedge funds, are increasing–enabling them to buy more feeder systems.

Wendell Potter, former Cigna PR guy and now overall heath insurer critic, wrote a piece this week on how much bigger and more concentrated the health plans have become in the last decade. But the bigger story is the growth of hospital systems, and their cost and clout. Dave Chase likes to say that America has gone to war for less than what hospitals have done to the American economy. That may be a tad hyperbolic, but no one would rationally design a health care environment where non-profit hospitals are getting bigger and richer, and don’t seem to be able to restrain any aspect of their growth.

Dr. Rockson

Dr. Rockson

Related Posts

Uncategorized

Screpy Review – How Good Is It In 2022?

April 23, 2022
Uncategorized

Food Tracking Helped Ansar Lose 14 Stone

April 18, 2022
Uncategorized

“I’m Never Going Back”

April 18, 2022
Uncategorized

“These New Habits Are Here To Stay”

April 18, 2022
No Result
View All Result

Recent Posts

  • Is your dentist a specialist?
  • Implants before and after Invisalign
  • 6 Cosmetic Dentistry Procedures to Enhance Your Smile in Locust, NC
  • What is the Ideal Age to get Dental Braces ??
  • Artificial Enamel – Stronger and Durable finds other uses beyond Medicine
Science Control - Health & Technology Magazine

© 2020 Sciencecontrol - Premium news & magazine by rxnstudio.

Navigate Site

  • Home

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home

© 2020 Sciencecontrol - Premium news & magazine by rxnstudio.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.