The Justice Department announced criminal charges in a $1.2 billion telemedicine fraud scheme committed by numerous individuals across the United States. In some cases the owners of clinical labs are accused of paying kickbacks to marketers, who in turn paid bribes to telemedicine companies in return for physician orders.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Concentrated Health Care Markets
Michael Cannon at Cato writes:
By 2017, in most markets, a single hospital system had more than a 50 percent market share of discharges. In 2016, markets for specialist physicians exhibited what federal antitrust authorities consider a high degree of concentration in 65 percent of metropolitan areas. Markets for primary‐care physicians exhibited high concentration in 39 percent of metropolitan areas…. In 2016, 57 percent of health insurance markets exhibited high concentration; in 2018, 75 percent did.
Reefer Madness: Crashes Increased After Marijuana Legalized
A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that auto accidents rose in states that legalized recreational marijuana. Car crashes with injuries jumped 6% while fatal auto accidents increased 4%. Comparison states that did not legalize recreational marijuana saw no increase in these types of accidents. The states that legalized recreational marijuana examined in the study were California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. The comparison states where cannabis is not legal were Arizona, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
FTC to Block Hospital Consolidation
Hospital consolidation is a growing problem. Hospitals merge with rivals to gain market share and to increase bargaining power with health insurers. Market share allows hospitals to negotiate as a block of hospitals rather than individual hospitals competing with each other on price. Research has found that when hospitals merge prices in the area rises as competition is reduced. It generally starts as consolidation within a metropolitan area and then expands to other major markets within the state.