Dive Brief:
- Hospital and health insurance groups held nothing back Thursday as a House Judiciary subcommittee heard their statements for and against two major mergers among four of the five largest health insurers in the US.
- The controversy involves how the proposed mergers of Aetna/Humana and Anthem/Cigna would impact competition in the health insurance industry.
- The Justice Department will decide whether the mergers would violate the Clayton Antitrust Act, in place to block mergers that might substantially lessen industry competition.
Dive Insight:
According to an artful summary of the hearing from The Business Journals, "Hospitals cried to Congress about consolidation in the healthcare insurance industry, and insurers complained about a wave of hospital mergers. Doctors, meanwhile, said they were being squeezed by both hospitals and insurers, and Republicans blamed the whole problem on Obamacare."
Officials from the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association argued insurance mergers are primarily motivated by profit, while hospital and provider mergers are necessary for the provision of integrated care, improved efficiency, lower costs and to enable smaller hospitals and practices to access capital improvements such as EHRs.
Meanwhile, proponents of the mergers, including America’s Health Insurance Plans, say insurance company consolidation can also facilitate better service, efficiency and cost reduction. They add health plans and rates already have the safeguard of being highly regulated.
House members did not yet appear to have taken a position of support or opposition, reports The New York Times.