Dive Brief:
- Last Thursday, the Connecticut Senate passed a bill to establish a consistent and fair process for hospital sale oversight.
- The bill is designed to improve cost transparency for patients, rein in certain facility fees, create a state health information exchange and reshape rules for hospital sales.
- It also aims to minimize competetitive advantages gained by large health systems through consolidation.
Dive Insight:
A lot of the debate has centered around consolidation of practices within large health systems, which proponents say is driving up costs. Senate Minory leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, said the Yale New Haven Health System, which now owns hundreds of physician practices as well as three hospitals, is operating in a monopoly-like fashion. He said failure to take action could result in fewer choices for patients. "If we don't act now, if we don't take a stand, if we don't say we need to control the healthcare costs of the state of Connecticut constituents and put our bill out there, it will be too late," Fasano said during the floor debate.
Fasano also said that some networks were using their IT systems "for competitive advantage to drive others out." He pointed to the Epic system that is currently being used by Yale New Haven, which has been criticized for making it difficult for users to share information.
It's a good bet that more bills like the one in CT will pop up in other states as the flurry of acquisitions and mergers continues. Health systems that are expanding their networks need to be prepared to respond.