Increasingly Consolidated Markets May Hurt Consumers, Studies Show

March 23

Consolidation in commercial health insurance markets is not slowing down, according to the 2019 edition of an annual report from the American Medical Association, which found that the share of markets that are highly concentrated increased from 71% to 75% between 2014 and 2018. The report concludes that such market consolidation is harming consumers and providers of care. Another recent study, this one concerning the effect of provider consolidation on care quality, found that newly acquired hospitals did not see any improvement in readmission or mortality rates, but they did see slightly worse performance on patient-experience measures.

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Health Plan Weekly

Jinghong Chen Reporter

Jinghong has been producing infographics and data stories on employer-sponsored insurance, public health insurance programs and prescription drug coverage for AIS Health’s Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits since 2018. She also manages AIS Health’s annual executive compensation database for top insurers and Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates. Before joining AIS Health, she interned at WBEZ, Al Jazeera English and The New York Times Chinese. She graduated from Missouri School of Journalism with a focus on data journalism and international reporting.