Consumer advocates and public health analysts are speaking out against the Yale New Haven (Conn.) deal to buy two Connecticut health systems from Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings, NPR affiliate Connecticut Public Radio reported Feb. 20.
The deal was announced Feb. 10 and includes three hospitals in Connecticut.
Elsa Pearson, policy director of the Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center for the Department of Veterans Affairs at the VA Boston Healthcare System, told the radio station that patients are likely to see an increase in costs through their out-of-pocket spending or insurance premiums.
"Hospitals make a lot of money, and even not-for-profit hospitals or nonprofit hospitals, they're bringing in a lot of money," Ms. Pearson said. "They have to stay in the black, and so mergers and acquisitions are one way to increase your bottom line or save yourself if you're struggling financially."
She also said provider choice and the quality of care could be impacted.
Connecticut's healthcare advocate, Ted Doolittle, also said the deal could hurt families.
"Hospital consolidations typically are bad news for the pocketbooks of the individual families in Connecticut," he said. "They may be good for the individual pocketbooks of the hospitals, but that's quite separate from the financial impact on families."
"This relationship makes sense from a patient-care perspective," Yale New Haven Hospital President Keith Churchwell, MD, said in a Feb. 10 news release about the transaction. "We believe patients will benefit directly from the affiliation of these exceptional health systems with a Connecticut-based academic health system like Yale New Haven."