A merger between Massachusetts hospital systems Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health could potentially drive up health care spending by more than $250 million, according to findings from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC).
According to a July 18, 2018 article in Modern Healthcare, the proposed merger, which also includes Boston’s New England Baptist Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, and Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, could result in an entity that can better compete with Partners Healthcare, the state’s largest health system. Yet the HPC noted that savings gleaned from the merger may be offset by the potentially higher prices the new entity could garner from having a bigger market share.
“I am at a loss for what are the things that could happen together that couldn’t happen separately,” said David Cutler, a professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a member of the HPC.
Read the Modern Healthcare story: Beth Israel-Lahey merger could raise healthcare spending