Competition

With Jose Ignacio Cuesta and Carlos Noton

Hospital-insurer integration leads to skewed plan generosity, harming hospital competition, increasing prices and premiums, and offsetting the gains from reduced double marginalization

With David Dranove

Employers buy insurance on behalf of employees, aggregating several hospital service markets in a single procurement process. Hospital systems controlling key employer geographies can leverage it in rate negotiations with insurers. Can this explain mounting evidence of cross-service-market merger price effects?