Vilsa Curto on Vertical Integration's Effect on Health Care Prices

<p>The health care sector has gone through various waves of consolidation with hospitals purchasing physician practices and hospitals, physicians, and health insurers merging with each other.</p><p><br></p><p>We're in the midst of a wave of consolidation.</p><p><br></p><p>Two years ago, <em>Health Affairs</em> published a paper that found <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00017?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=a+health+podyssey&amp;utm_campaign=44682&amp;utm_content=44682&amp;utm_term=furukawa">more than half of US physicians and 72 percent of surveyed hospitals were affiliated with one of 637 health systems in 2018</a>. More recently, some have estimated that the 10 largest health systems now control about a quarter of the health care market.</p><p><br></p><p>Consolidation brings with it various opportunities for savings and efficiency but it also concentrates market power and creates opportunities to raise prices.</p><p><br></p><p>Vilsa Curto from <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> joins <em>A Health Podyssey </em>to discuss the effects of consolidation and integration.</p><p><br></p><p>Curto and colleagues published a paper in the May 2022 issue of <em>Health Affairs</em> <a href="https://https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.00727?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=a+health+podyssey&amp;utm_campaign=44682&amp;utm_content=44682&amp;utm_term=curto">assessing trends in vertical integration and joint contracting between physicians and hospitals</a> in Massachusetts and exploring the affects on prices for physician services.</p><p><br></p><p>They found notable price affects that varied according to system size and physician type.</p><p><a href="https://www.pubservice.com/backissue/subbi.aspx?CO=PJ&amp;PC=HR&amp;BI=HRI&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=a+health+podyssey&amp;utm_campaign=44682&amp;utm_content=44682&amp;utm_term=curto">Order the May 2022 issue of <em>Health Affairs for</em> research on telemedicine, dispariti