We provide an in-depth analysis of the price effects of two hospital mergers that occurred in the north shore suburbs of Chicago in early 2000: Evanston Northwestern Healthcare's (ENH) purchase of Highland Park Hospital (HPH) and the merger of St. Therese Medical Center (STMC) and Victory...

On December 15, 2011, Phoebe Putney Health System acquired the only other hospital in Albany, Georgia — Palmyra Medical Center — despite the Federal Trade Commission's challenge of the merger as anticompetitive. The acquisition was consummated after the district and appellate courts ruled...

One approach that antitrust enforcement authorities use to address potentially anticompetitive mergers is to seek divestitures in specific, competitively problematic overlap markets while allowing the rest of the merger to consummate. We evaluate the efficacy of this approach by studying...

We examine 558 hospital mergers during a period of increased antitrust enforcement. Using US data on commercially insured patients from 2009-2016, we estimate an average price effect of roughly 5% with a smaller effect for mergers later in the sample. Mergers between hospitals that were...

This paper analyzes the accuracy of various prospective hospital merger screening methods used by antitrust agencies and the courts. The qualitative and quantitative predictions of the screening methods calculated with pre-merger data are compared with the actual post-merger price changes of 26...

Certificates of Public Advantage (COPAs) grant antitrust immunity to merging hospitals conditional on active state regulation. We investigate the effects of three mergers shielded with COPAs: Benefis in Great Falls, Montana, Palmetto in Columbia, South Carolina, and MaineHealth’s acquisition...

This paper explores the relationship between competition and hospital charity care by analyzing changes in charity care associated with changes in a hospital's competitive environment (due to mergers and divestitures), using hospital financial and discharge data from Florida and Texas. Despite...