AHA points to problems with certain consolidation studies cited at hearing

Congress should be skeptical of certain research cited by America’s Health Insurance Plans at a recent hearing on “competition in the health care marketplace,” AHA said today in a letter to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law. “In its testimony, AHIP cites research to support the contention there has been consolidation among hospitals and other health care providers that is directly correlated to higher-than-anticipated price hikes,” wrote AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “The AHA has reviewed this research and found that many of the studies rely on old data, are limited in geographic scope, or fail to look at the broader determinants of price and, therefore, should be treated with considerable skepticism as a basis for future policy deliberations.” For more, see today’s AHASTAT blog post.