FTC

See the following -

FTC Commissioner: Accountable Care Organizations Will Likely Lead to 'Higher Costs and Lower Quality Health Care'

Avik Roy | Forbes | November 21, 2011

In August, I wrote about how hospital monopolies are the biggest driver of health costs that nobody talks about. These powerful hospital chains know that insurers have no choice but to accept their jacked-up rates, and the cost of health insurance goes up whenever it suits their needs. Now, according to remarks by Federal Trade Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch, it turns out that accountable care organizations—one of Obamacare’s most touted policy gizmos—could make this problem far worse. Read More »

Goal of NYU-Continuum Hospital Mega-Merger: Raising Prices

Avik Roy | Forbes | June 8, 2012

On Wednesday, two big New York City hospital chains—New York University’s Langone Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners—announced that they were looking into merging into one mega-entity...There is only one reason why these two hospital chains are linking arms: to force insurers and patients to accept higher prices for their services. Read More »

ONC fail: EHR 'data blocking' still rampant

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | April 17, 2015

Manuel Prado, president of Viva Transcription, Santa Cruz, Calif., publicly complained two years ago about the high interface fees – up to $10,000 – that electronic health record vendors charged for each hospital or physician practice they connect to his transcription service. “That's data blocking,” he charged. “If taxpayers are contributing $44,000 or $63,000 (in federal Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments) for each EHR, it's not too much to ask” that they make interconnect charges free.

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