Which types of hospital mergers save consumers money? uri icon

abstract

  • This study analyzes the changes in costs and prices from 1986 to 1994 for more than 3,500 U.S. short-term general hospitals, including 122 horizontal mergers. These mergers were generally financially beneficial to consumers, providing average price reductions of approximately 7 percent. Merger-related price reductions were considerably less in market areas with higher market concentration levels. Merger-related price reductions in areas with higher penetration by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) were approximately twice those in areas with lower HMO penetration. Merger-related price reductions were greater for low-occupancy hospitals, nonteaching hospitals, nonsystem hospitals, similar-size hospitals, and hospitals with greater premerger service duplication.

published proceedings

  • Health Aff (Millwood)

altmetric score

  • 4

author list (cited authors)

  • Connor, R. A., Feldman, R. D., Dowd, B. E., & Radcliff, T. A.

citation count

  • 65

complete list of authors

  • Connor, RA||Feldman, RD||Dowd, BE||Radcliff, TA

publication date

  • November 1997