In a preliminary inquiry, the newly created commission found “given Partners’ size and high costs, an expansion of the system to include South Shore Hospital, a large, high-cost community hospital, is likely to have a significant impact on the Commonwealth’s ability to meet its healthcare cost growth goals, and on the competitive market.” The commission doesn’t have regulatory power to block a merger, but law requires the transaction cannot be finalized until 30 days after the commission’s final report, which could influence the attorney general’s office.
Massachusetts, which launched a major healthcare reform initiative years before the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, passed a law last year intended to link the growth in medical spending to that of the state’s economy, projected at 3.6 percent this year, according to the report.
The commission will decide in the coming weeks whether it will review planned transactions between Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital and Northampton, Mass.-based Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and another between Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Mass.
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