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As hospitals have acquired more doctor practices, prices for outpatient medical services have gone up, according to a new study that will fuel debate over the impact of the merger boom sweeping through health care. The new study, in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at what happened to the cost and volume of health-care services as physicians became more integrated into hospitals, by working for them or selling their practices to hospital systems. Overall, outlays for inpatient stays didn’t change significantly, but spending on outpatient care increased. (Wilde Mathews, 10/19)

In communities with the sharpest increase in financial integration between doctors and hospitals over the study period, average annual outpatient costs for each person with private health insurance increased by $75, while the amount of outpatient services they used was little changed. (Rapaport, 10/19)

The cost of visiting the doctor is climbing as hospitals scoop up a growing number of physicians’ groups, according to a Harvard Medical School study. Researchers found that when small doctors’ practices join large hospitals, their patients pay an average of $75 more every year for outpatient services like check-ups, even though the number of appointments stays the same. With data from cities across the United States, the study is the first to document the cost of physician acquisitions by hospitals on a national scale. (Boodman, 10/19)