
Hospitals Drive Up Overall Healthcare Costs Considerably
As a former board member of two hospitals (a children’s medical center and academic medical center), I am sympathetic to the unique services that hospitals provide and the role many of them play in the education of doctors, nurses, and more. But it is also clear that hospitals are inefficient organizations that continue to drive up costs overall in the healthcare system. While some hospitals are reforming, others cling to the status quo. Hosptial lobbies are also stuck in the past and bucking change. Here are a few areas and recent studies that point to the role hospitals play in driving up healthcare costs: Hospital consolidations drive up costs, not lower them. Quality often suffers. New statistics from the Federal Trade Commission suggest that about 90% of hospital markets are highly concentrated due to the massive mergers and consolidations that have occurred over the past many years. What’s more studies