Correction: An earlier version of this article, based on source reporting from STAT News, stated that the American Medical Association supported the Campaign for Consumer Choice. The AMA says it "has offered no direct or indirect support to the CCC."
Dive Brief:
- The Campaign for Consumer Choice, which presents itself as a grassroots effort to fight insurance mergers on the public's behalf, is actually being run by hospital and medical organizations, according to a STAT report.
- The campaign involves groups lobbying in five states to prevent the pending mergers of Cigna with Anthem, and Aetna with Humana.
- The groups operate a set of similar websites that detail the risks to consumers of insurance industry consolidation and reduced competition yet they do not address hospitals' stake in the issue, which is preventing insurers from growing their negotiating power to further reduce rates to hospitals and providers.
Dive Insight:
The Greater New York Hospital Association and SEIU 1199 United Healthcare Workers East, which created and funded the campaign, are quietly working as hidden sponsors behind the effort, with support from state medical groups, STAT reported.
The groups, which were just organized this spring, are lobbying against the mergers in Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, and Colorado.
The efforts, however, are drawing some criticism given the lack of the groups' transparency regarding their leadership and funding, just as they press for transparency in the merger review processes.
Antitrust lawyer David Balto, who is leading the groups' campaign, said he is organizing consumer groups that oppose the mergers, and argued the sources funding the campaign are irrelevant.
At the same time, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has argued the hospital industry's mergers are negative for consumers. “No one can ignore the irony of the hospital industry decrying mergers when its own consolidation is widely recognized for causing significant harm to consumers," AHIP Press Secretary Clare Krusing told STAT.