Recent Antitrust Actions Against Hospitals, Insurers Purchasing Physician Practices Hint Of Obstacles To Come
Recent decisions in court cases come as concerns mount over the growing consolidation of hospitals and physician practices and the impact on prices and total health spending. In other health industry news: jobs, blood pressure devices, and artificial intelligence.
Recent actions by antitrust enforcers and courts to block or regulate purchases of physician practices by hospitals and insurers may signal increasing scrutiny for such deals as policymakers intensify their focus on boosting competition to reduce healthcare prices. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission聽announced a settlement with UnitedHealth Group and DaVita unwinding United鈥檚 acquisition of DaVita Medical Group鈥檚 Las Vegas operations. (Meyer, 7/6)
Healthcare hiring ticked back up in June after taking a dive in April and May. The sector added 34,900 jobs last month, up significantly from 15,700 in May, the weakest month since September 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest jobs report, released Friday. The U.S. unemployment rate grew slightly to 3.7% in June, compared with 3.6% in both May and April. Total nonfarm employment increased by 224,000 in June, according to the report. (Bannow, 7/8)
The CMS announced Tuesday it has extended coverage of blood pressure monitoring devices to all Medicare beneficiaries suspected of reporting abnormal blood pressure levels when administered in clinical settings. The agency previously only covered the use of the device, which monitors blood pressure periodically over a 24-hour period, for patients with suspected elevated blood pressure levels due to anxiety from being in a clinical setting. The device can now also be used for patients suspected of having lower than usual blood pressure measurements when inside a doctor's office. Medicare will cover the use of the device once a year per patient. (Castellucci, 7/3)
Microsoft Corp. signed聽Providence St. Joseph Health as a customer of its聽Azure and artificial intelligence tools to help the hospital chain聽track electronic health data such as surgery outcomes and cancer therapies.聽聽Providence, which operates hospitals in seven U.S. states, will shift data and applications from its own data centers to Microsoft鈥檚 cloud as part of the five-year agreement. The company鈥檚聽119,000 doctors and caregivers will also get access to聽Microsoft鈥檚 Office productivity software and its Teams chat service.聽(Bass and Tozzi, 7/8)
