CAHPR research examining nonprofit hospitals’ tax-exempt status and community benefit obligations informed federal oversight efforts in 2025. A CAHPR study documenting that nonprofit hospitals receive more than $37 billion annually in tax benefits while providing over $25 billion less in community benefit spending contributed to growing congressional attention on the issue. Building on this evidence, CAHPR researcher Chris Whaley was invited to testify before the House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Oversight in September 2025, where he presented findings showing that nonprofit and for-profit hospitals operate similarly across pricing, charity care, and financial performance, despite the substantial subsidies nonprofit hospitals receive. His testimony highlighted the need for strengthened accountability and clearer standards to ensure that federal tax benefits translate into tangible community value.

CAHPR research on health care price transparency and the impacts of provider consolidation has informed federal discussions on how to lower costs and improve market competitiveness. Drawing on this body of work, which documents wide variation in commercial prices, the role of consolidation in driving higher costs, and the value of expanding tools like Transparency-in-Coverage data, CAHPR researcher Chris Whaley was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in July 2024. His testimony highlighted that employer-sponsored insurance premiums now approach $24,000 per family, that commercial hospital prices average 254% of Medicare rates, and that price transparency is essential for enabling employers, purchasers, and policymakers to steer patients toward lower-cost, high-quality care.

CAHPR’s research on health care consolidation, competition, and the growing dominance of large vertically and horizontally integrated health care entities helped elevate national attention to the risks consolidation poses for affordability, access, and system resilience. Drawing on this work, which documents how consolidation raises prices, reduces quality, increases systemic vulnerability, and undermines fair competition, CAHPR faculty member Erin Fuse Brown was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights in June 2024. In her testimony, she outlined how highly concentrated hospital, insurer, and physician markets contribute to rising spending, reduced patient choice, and heightened systemic fragility, and she presented policy options to strengthen antitrust oversight, improve transparency, and curb harmful consolidation. CAHPR researchers continue to build the evidence base policymakers rely on as they assess reforms to bolster competition, enhance health system resilience, and protect patients and purchasers from the harms of unchecked market power.

CAHPR research on private equity, corporatization, and the effects of profit incentives on health care quality and access informed a September 9 roundtable convened by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. The roundtable examined how profit-seeking behavior, including private equity acquisitions, consolidation, and financial extraction, may affect veterans who rely on the Veterans Health Administration’s Community Care Network (CCN). CAHPR faculty Erin Fuse Brown, David Meyers, and Yashaswini Singh participated in the discussion, drawing on their research documenting how corporate ownership structures can raise costs, degrade care quality, and steer resources away from patient care. Their participation helped highlight the risks that unchecked consolidation and private equity investment pose to veterans’ access to timely, high-quality care, particularly as Congress considers potential expansion of the CCN. CAHPR researchers continue to support policymakers as they evaluate reforms to ensure community care options improve access without sacrificing quality or increasing costs to veterans, VA, or taxpayers.