Recent Research in the Media
- Richard Scheffler is Awarded the Emeriti Association’s “Emeriti of the Year” Award
On October 2nd, 2024, Richard Scheffler was awarded the Emeriti Association’s “Emeriti of the Year” Award, alongside Michael Buckland. Both recipients have made significant contributions to their fields after retirement and continue to have a major influence on academic and policy discussions in their fields.
Read more about the Emeritus of the Year event here.
- Richard Scheffler is Elected as a Life Fellow from the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Richard Scheffler is awarded a fellowship award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his distinguished contributions to the fields of health economics, competition in health care, and the development and implementation of domestic and global public health policy.
- Harris-Walz Ticket and Healthcare Consolidation
Becker’s Hospital Review article shares that Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, have a history of challenging major healthcare corporations. However, health policy experts are unclear about how forcefully they would pursue these efforts at the national level if elected. Richard Scheffler, PhD, as noted in the article, suggests that healthcare conglomerates using their market power to raise prices should be concerned under this administration.
Read the full Becker’s Hospital Review here.
- Washington Post Article Highlights Potential Opposition Towards Health Care Conglomerates from a Harris-Walz Administration
Currently, both Democratic and Republican politicians are focusing on combating health care conglomerates that they believe drive up costs and limit access. The health care industry’s significant economic influence often makes it challenging for politicians to enforce strict regulations. As health care costs remain a critical issue in the 2024 presidential race, both Harris and Walz’s previous actions suggest they might continue to challenge corporate power, although how forcefully remains uncertain. Richard Scheffler, quoted in the article, explains that health care conglomerates who are using their market power to raise prices should be concerned under a Harris-Walz administration.
Read the full Washington Post article here.
- Expected Democratic Presidential Nominee, Kamala Harris, Leads a Discussion on Healthcare Costs in her Senate Portfolio
During her time as California’s Attorney General from 2011 to 2017, Kamala Harris investigated concentration in healthcare markets, supporting the work for her successor, Xavier Becerra, to challenge anticompetitive behavior by Sutter Health.
Read the full article here. Visit the Health Affairs article here.
Recent Publications
- New evidence on the impacts of cross-market hospital mergers on commercial prices and measures of quality
By Daniel R. Arnold, Jaime S. King, Brent D. Fulton, Alexandra D. Montague, Katherine L. Gudiksen, Thomas L. Greaney, Richard M. Scheffler| Published in Health Services Research in April 2024 | Link to full report.
“As hospital systems have expanded, they’ve extended into regions where they previously had no presence. A recent study found 55% of the 1500 hospitals targeted for a merger or acquisition from 2009 to 2019 operated in a commuting zone that the acquirer did not previously operate in. The price and quality effects of these “cross-market” hospital mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are the focus of this paper.”
What this study adds:
- Serial acquirers are significant contributors to estimated cross-market price effects.
- We find no discernible impact of cross-market mergers on mortality and readmission rates for heart failure, heart attacks and pneumonia.
- Overall, this study provides further evidence that cross-market hospital mergers lead to price increases and novel findings of no quality effect and the impact of serial acquirers on the price effect. More antitrust scrutiny of these mergers—particularly those of serial acquirers—appears prudent given the current state of highly concentrated hospital markets in the United States.
Questions should be addressed to Daniel Arnold, [email protected]
- Private Equity–Acquired Physician Practices And Market Penetration Increased Substantially, 2012–21
By Ola Abdelhadi, Brent D. Fulton, Laura Alexander, Richard M. Scheffler | Published March 2024 in Health Affairs | Link to full report.
“Private equity (PE) firms have been acquiring physician practices at an increasing rate, raising concerns about such firms’ penetration at the physician level into local markets and the impact on health care quality and prices. However, limited knowledge exists about the extent of PE firms’ control in local markets. By linking data on PE acquisitions to physician data and using full-time-equivalent physicians as the base of assessment, we estimated the local market share of each PE firm within ten physician specialties at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) level.”
Petris Director Joins the Better Healthcare Policy Group
