No.
Studies show that hospital acquisition of physician practices increased prices for the same services, by the same practices, by 14%-15%. Though one study found two to four times greater prices at hospital-owned sites, it did not investigate causality between acquisition and changes in particular physicians’ service prices.
Through competition reduction, consolidation – such as physician practice acquisition – leads to higher prices without necessarily improving quality. Service prices of physicians previously integrated with acquiring hospitals increased 9% despite no changes other than the acquisition of physicians in their specialty.
Acquisitions have been on the rise. From 2008 to 2016, the share of hospital-employed physicians nearly doubled to 47.2%. As of 2023, hospitals, health systems, and corporations employ 77.6% of physicians and own 58.5% of practices.
Almost half of metropolitan areas’ inpatient care markets were controlled by one or two health systems in 2024.
Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.
Sources
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