Erin Fuse Brown is a Professor of Health Services, Policy, and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health and former Catherine C. Henson Professor of Law at Georgia State University. Her work focuses on health law and policy, health care consolidation and pricing, consumer financial protections, and state and federal health reforms, and has informed policymaking at both the state and national levels.
The article explains how growing consolidation among insurers, hospitals, and physician groups is driving higher prices and fewer choices for patients, while current antitrust tools struggle to keep up with these increasingly complex mergers.
On Wednesday, the state House passed Senate Bill 951, the latest effort to expand Oregon’s prohibitions on corporate ownership in local care providers.