Hospital mergers and acquisitions can lead to higher prices and cut services for rural hospitals but can also improve patient care outcomes at rural hospitals, according to three recent studies reported in Becker's.
Three insights:
1. States that have stronger merger review authorities are usually tougher on hospital mergers than states with weaker authorities, according to a December Health Affairs study. Despite this, medical prices in stronger authority states increase at similar levels to other states, likely because the review authorities approved mergers with conditions that did not address competition, according to Health Affairs.
2. Although mergers and acquisitions provide financial stability to rural hospitals, they also often cut less profitable lines such as maternal, neonatal and surgical care, which can hurt rural residents, an October Health Affairs study found.
3. Mergers and acquisitions improved patient care outcomes for rural hospitals, a September Jama Network Open study discovered. In the case-control study, researchers found mortality rates dropped from 4.3 percent to 3.2 percent at rural hospitals that had completed a merger.