When Hospitals Merge to Save Money, Patients Often Pay More
My ex-boyfriend was an attorney at UPMC doing M&A.  Their business strategy goes something like this:<p>1. "Rescue" the only small hospital in a rural area through merger or acquisition.  The hospital entity is a "non-profit."<p>2. Over the course of the next year or two ramp up sales of the very much for-profit (and, conveniently, affiliated) health insurance plan, UPMC Health Plan to all major local employers.<p>3. Once sales of the health insurance plan reach "critical mass" within the community, the "non-profit" hospital becomes out of network, and ridiculously expensive, for all major insurers except one: UPMC Health Plan.<p>4. Within the year all local employers are basically forced to adopt UPMC Health Plan.<p>5.  UPMC Hospital and UPMC Health Plan rates go up.  UPMC Health Plan shareholders rake in the money while a small town goes broke trying to receive adequate healthcare.