A Lifespan and CNE Merger Needs Strong Oversight, Says Former Regulator
GoLocalProv Business Team
A Lifespan and CNE Merger Needs Strong Oversight, Says Former Regulator
Moreover, one former top regulator says history shows that mergers like this generally increase healthcare costs for consumers rather than achieve savings.
Dr. Michael Fine, the former Rhode Island director of Health, says the merger has the potential to have a positive impact, but in the past, the egos of hospital leaders have doomed the merger.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThis is the sixth time that the Lifespan and CNE have discussed merging in the past 20 years. Combined the two groups have nearly 20,000 employees although both have recently made layoffs.
‘When you combine hospitals, the evidence from around the country says over and over again that they use their monopoly power to push up health care costs and that's the last thing we need," said Fine in an appearance on GoLocal LIVE. "And the way you control that is to create a hospital regulatory commission and frankly set hospital pricing -- if you keep the fee for service world. You know, the opportunity, the really big opportunity is to dump fee-for-service all together."
SEE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW
An investigation in 2018 found that costs go up. “An analysis conducted for The New York Times shows [that] mergers have essentially banished competition and raised prices for hospital admissions in most cases, according to an examination of 25 metropolitan areas with the highest rate of consolidation from 2010 through 2013, a peak period for mergers.”
"The analysis showed that the price of an average hospital stay soared, with prices in most areas going up between 11 percent and 54 percent in the years afterward, according to researchers from the Nicholas C. Petris Center at the University of California, Berkeley,” wrote the Times.
Fine said it is critical to create a strong regulatory structure to control costs.
“I actually think it's good news for Rhode Island if the legislature figures out that it needs a Hospital Regulatory Commission as well. These two systems have always had great synergy and should have always been put together,” he said.
Both Lifespan and CNE are losing tens of millions of dollars monthly this year, in part, tied to the coronavirus, but both groups' finances were failing before the virus hit.
Potential Positive Impact
With strong regulatory oversight, the merger could have a potential positive impact.
“The strength of Rhode Island medicine is the tunnel that connects Rhode Island Hospital to Women and Infants. On the clinical side, there have been great collaborations going back as long as I can remember and it's been a source of strength and should be a source of pride. [If] we let egos and economics get in the way of developing a great clinical enterprise, then shame on us," added Fine.
Union Demands Seat at Table
On Tuesday, the United Nurses and Allied Professionals President Linda McDonald, RN, said, “Today’s announcement of the renewed merger talks between Lifespan and Care New England has the potential to dramatically alter healthcare delivery in Rhode Island and have a major impact on thousands of brave bedside caregivers and support professionals.”
“We’ve been down this road before, and as we’ve said each time, the devil is in the details," added McDonald.
“Negotiations between these two organizations must be done in the interest of full transparency. Additionally, it is not enough to just recognize the life-saving work of caregivers – their input must be solicited and respected as talks resume,” she added.
“We would ask that full consideration be given to the placement of a union representative on any consolidated Board of Directors. It is crucial that the workers’ voices be heard, and there is no better way for that to happen than with a union seat at the table,” said McDonald. “If COVID 19 has taught us anything, it is to listen to the women and men on the frontlines who are doing the real work of healthcare.”