House Holds Hearing on Consolidation in Health Care Sector

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations today held a hearing examining the impact of health care consolidation, which featured academic witnesses. In a letter submitted to the committee, AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels said, “If there was ever any doubt that the health care landscape is changing dramatically, one has to look no further than the recent announcements that CVS seeks to acquire Aetna; Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase & Co partnering on employee health care; and UnitedHealth Group embarking on a physician acquisition spree. The hospital field has long anticipated this disruption and has sought to participate by replacing an outdated ‘siloed’ health care system with a continuum of care to improve coordination and quality and reduce costs for patients. Building a continuum demands that providers are more integrated. This can take many forms, involving mergers with other hospitals, acquisition or employment of physicians and clinical integration, among other arrangements.” For more on the issue and AHA’s take, see today’s AHA Stat blog post.