Dive Brief:
- According to an article in Bridge Michigan, physician-hospital consolidation may hurt quality of care, because large chains may not understand community needs.
- The article gives the example of Marquette General Hospital, which was transferred to new ownership in a large chain in 2012: "We do have concerns about the ability of very large corporations, especially for-profit corporations, to interact and respond to the community's needs in the same way as hospitals in the past have been able to do," said Marjorie Mitchell, executive director of the Michigan Universal Healthcare Access Network.
- Marquette is one of many community hospitals in the state that have joined a larger chain since 2010.
Dive Insight:
Whether communities like it or not, there's going to be a great deal of physician-hospital consolidation going on, as industry forces such as the pressure to form ACOs are pushing things in that direction. And the results may not always be good for the those communities. As another Bridge article notes, consolidation can be linked to higher cost and low quality care. The reality is, however, that we're embarking on an era when consolidation is essentially better for providers and health plans. We'll just have to see whether communities are adversely affected or not.