Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/665044
101 Far more problematic is the narrowness of the FTC's view of consolida- tion. By seeing hospital mergers primarily through the lens of pricing acute-care services, the FTC misses the enormity of change in health- care and the critical importance of encouraging the nonprofit provider community to be an essential part of that change. Hospitals will be pushed out of the market by IBM, the large insurers, CVS, Walgreens and others unless they are big enough to compete both through tradi- tional services and by expanding in many, many new directions. Given current FTC policies and procedures, hospitals' battle for rele- vance is being lost before it can even be fought. The role of consolidation for hospitals Government policymakers and market forces have converged on popu- lation health management as the starting line for our nation's efforts to reduce healthcare costs, improve care quality and reduce fragmentation. Without scale and size, the vast majority of hospitals and health systems will be unable to develop the network size and breadth, talent and tech- nology to reach this starting line. However, companies like IBM, CVS, and others are already moving aggressively beyond population health management, toward a new healthcare ecosystem built on sophisticated interactions among science, technology, scale and service. Already, hospitals' competitors are more likely to be these multibillion-dollar companies than another hospital down the street. Despite the increasing pace of hospital and health system mergers in the last 10 years, very few existing provider organizations have the size to be a meaningful player in this environment. Any growth hospitals have been able to achieve pales in comparison with the size of existing and emerging industry giants. Hospitals are critical to the effectiveness of healthcare in America. eir pervasiveness, community focus, expertise in high-intensity services and mission to stay by the sides of their patients across all levels of health and stages of life make hospitals central to a high-functioning national healthcare system. However, without the ability to get big, hospitals will find that they are at a competitive disadvantage in the emerging health- care ecosystem. e FTC clearly has a mandate and a job to do, but this set of problems should be thought about differently. n Your comments are welcome. I can be reached at kkaufman@ kaufmanhall.com. e following column was republished with permission from Kaufman Hall. Copyright 2016 Kaufman, Hall & Associates, LLC Ken Kaufman's book Fast and Furious: Observations on Healthcare's Transformation is available at kaufmanhall.com/fastandfurious. Hospital and Health System Transactions Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems acquired an 80 percent ownership interest in a joint venture entity with Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health that includes essentially all of the assets of 227-bed IU Health La Porte (Ind.) Hospital and 50-bed IU Health Starke Hospital in Knox, Ind. Prospect Medical Holdings, a for-profit hospital chain based in Los Angeles, bought bankrupt East Or- ange (N.J.) General Hospital. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the health insurance arm of Oakland, Ca- lif.-based Kaiser Permanente, formal- ly applied to acquire Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative. The affiliation between Dart- mouth-Hitchcock and Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, both based in Lebanon, N.H., received regulatory approval, finalizing a deal in the works for more than two years. Pittsburgh-based UPMC signed an affiliation agreement with WCA Hos- pital in Jamestown, N.Y., in late 2015, and the organizations moved forward with their partnership by filing plans with the New York State Department of Health. A bid was accepted for Bowie (Texas) Memorial Hospital more than three months after the facility closed. Glasgow, Ky.-based T.J. Regional Health completed its $3.35 million ac- quisition of Westlake Regional Hos- pital in Columbia, Ky., which ceased inpatient services in early February. The proposed merger between Kingsport, Tenn.-based Wellmont Health System and Johnson City, Tenn.-based Mountain States Health Alliance is now in the hands of state and federal regulators. MemorialCare Health System in Fountain Valley, Calif., entered a joint venture partnership with Fresenius Medical Care North America of Waltham, Mass., to operate 15 dialysis clinics in California's Orange and Los Angeles Counties. Downers Grove, Ill.-based DuPage Medical Group, the Chicago area's largest independent physician group, continues to grow rapidly. In its latest conquest, DMG has set its sights on a majority stake in Naperville (Ill.) Surgical Centre for $1.7 million. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Holdings inked a deal to purchase Forest Park Medical Center – Frisco (Texas) from Sabra Health Care REIT. Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health entered into an affiliation agreement with Bear Valley Commu- nity Healthcare District, which includes Bear Valley Community Hospital in Big Bear Lake, Calif. Boise, Idaho-based St. Luke's Health System reached an agreement with the Idaho Attorney General to transfer ownership of two hospitals back to the districts that gave the facilities to St. Luke's several years ago. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus and Barnesville (Ohio) Hospital signed an affiliation agreement. Englewood, Colo.-based Centura Health took over operations of 26- bed Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital in Ulysses, Kan.