Recent Research in the Media
- The Curious Case of Private Equity in Health Care’s Market Failures
Richard Scheffler and Barak Richman discuss the crucial divide that lies ahead for policymakers interested in preventing the spread of PE-induced damage within the health care markets. The authors explain why the events of 2024 led to increased scrutiny led by the Biden administration and a few states pursing their own reforms.
To read the article, please click the link here.
- Hospital Consolidation Across Geographic Markets with Katie Gudiksen and Brent Fulton
Andréa Caballero, Vice President of Policy at Catalyst for Payment Reform, calls Katie Gudiksen, Executive Editor at The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition, and Brent Fulton, Associate Research Professor of Health Economics at UC Berkeley and Associate Director of the Petris Center to dissect the evolving landscape of hospital consolidation. They explore horizontal, vertical, and, crucially, cross-market mergers, providing context on their prevalence and challenging conventional wisdom around market definitions. The discussion highlights how consolidation, irrespective of type, demonstrably increases prices without corresponding quality improvements – a critical concern for purchasers.
To read more about the research discussed, please click the link here. Link to the podcast. - Dr. Arnold takes on new role at Brown University, remains as an Affiliated Scholar at Petris
After years of working with our Petris team as the director of research, Dan Arnold has moved to Brown University. We are thankful to Dan for all his many contributions to the Petris Center and are very pleased that he will continue to work with us as an affiliated scholar.
Dr. Arnold’s research focuses on the impact of health care consolidation on prices, quality, and
wages. He has published in Health Affairs, JAMA Health Forum, and Health Services Research
and his work has been cited by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco
Chronicle.He has assessed the likely competitive effects of health care mergers for the California Attorney
General, the California Office of Health Care Affordability, and the Connecticut Office of Health
Strategy.Dr. Arnold received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara
and his B.A. from Cornell University. - Welcoming Dr. Deborah Ann Haas-Wilson as Distinguished Senior Scholar
We are pleased to announce that Deborah Ann Haas-Wilson who is the Marilyn Carlson Nelson Professor Emerita of Economics at Smith College and a leading expert on health care antitrust issues will be joining the Petris Center as a Distinguished Senior Scholar.
Professor Haas-Wilson served as the testifying expert for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in
the matter of Evanston Health Corp. (Docket No. 9315) and in the U.S. District Court for the plaintiffs in the matter of Saint Alphonsus Medical System v. St. Luke’s Health System (Case No. 1:12-cv-00560). She has served as an economic consultant on antitrust matters for the Massachusetts Attorney General, the California Attorney General, the California Department of Managed Care, and numerous private parties.
Professor Haas-Wilson’s current research focuses on competition and competition policies in
health care markets. Her articles have been published in the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Law and Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Health Economics and other peer-reviewed journals. She is the author of Managed Care and Monopoly Power: The Antitrust Challenge (Harvard University Press, 2003) and co-editor of Uncertain Times: Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care (Duke University Press, 2003).She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley and her B.A.
from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. - 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.
Recent Publications
- Hospital Consolidation Across Geographic Markets: Insights from Market Participants on Mechanisms for Price Increases
By Katherine Gudiksen, Andréa E. Caballero, Paul Ginsburg, Bruce Allain, Thomas Greaney, Brent D. Fulton | Published April 2025 in Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law | Link to article.
“Consolidation among health systems has resulted in increased prices and caused the cost of employer-sponsored health benefits to increase much faster than inflation over the past few decades. Prior quantitative research demonstrates small, but significant price increases resulting from transactions that expand the geographic footprint of health systems, but the mechanisms by which these cross-market acquisitions raise prices is not completely resolved.“
- 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]
Petris Director Joins the Better Healthcare Policy Group
