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:1. "Rescue" the only small hospital in a rural area through merger or acquisition.  The hospital entity is a "non-profit."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.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.4. Within the year all local employers are basically forced to adopt UPMC Health Plan.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.