WASHINGTON, D.C. – The price of cancer care—and the amount patients are forced to pay for it—is rising at an alarming rate. A new report reveals the significant role healthcare provider consolidation contributes to these rising costs—and highlights policy solutions to help fix the problem.
The new report, “Healthcare Consolidation is Raising Prices and Jeopardizing Cancer Care: Policymaker Recommendations” is being released amid pivotal funding deadlines as Congress considers key reforms that would help address these troubling trends.
Local healthcare systems, hospitals, and doctors’ offices are increasingly being purchased by a few large health systems. As a result, those big health systems are gaining more control of their markets—leaving insurers and employers with less leverage to negotiate lower costs. These increased costs are passed on to consumers through higher premiums, out-of-pocket costs, and even lower wages. As a result, patients are less able to afford the care they need—and are more likely to delay or even forego treatment.
“As healthcare systems become increasingly consolidated, patients are forced to shoulder rapidly rising healthcare costs—and some of them are collapsing under that burden,” said Gwen Nichols, MD, chief medical officer of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. “Even patients with ‘good’ insurance are often unable to afford the cost of their care—and they’re delaying or foregoing treatment as a result. That’s why we’re proposing new, patient-focused solutions in this report—and why we’re proudly advocating for them on Capitol Hill and across the country.”
Research shows that consolidation—particularly hospital mergers—is especially harmful to Black, Hispanic/Latino/Latinx, Indigenous, low-income, and LGBTQ+ people, as well as other people of color and women. This is because mergers among healthcare providers often lead to fewer services offered, leaving people in marginalized and disenfranchised communities with fewer options for where to receive certain types of care.
The report includes recommendations for laws and regulations that state and federal governments can enact to rein in the effects of consolidation, such as strengthening anti-trust enforcement, reforming pricing and reimbursement rules, prohibiting anticompetitive contracting terms, and improving transparency standards.
These reforms would make cancer care more affordable by addressing both system-wide and individual patient healthcare costs. Ultimately, they would move us closer to achieving health equity by ensuring that all cancer patients can access lifesaving care when they need it.
Want to learn more? Join The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society March 13 at 12 p.m. Eastern for the webinar “Beyond the Balance Sheet: The Patient Impact of Healthcare Provider Consolidation.”
Media contact:
Ryan Holeywell
Ryan.holeywell@lls.org