HCFO-Funded Work Informs Senate Hearing on Health Insurance Consolidation and Consumers

In response to proposed mergers among major health insurance companies as well as a changing health care landscape under the Affordable Care Act, both the House and the Senate are holding a series of hearings to examine competition in the health care market. At the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing [1]on health insurance consolidation and its impact on consumers, multiple testimonies cited HCFO-funded work. Glenn Melnick’s HCFO-funded study [2] demonstrated that insurance mergers have led to lower prices paid to providers.  Bradley Herring and Erin Trish’s HCFO-funded study [3] extended Melnick’s work and found that lower prices paid to providers were not passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums. Bob Berenson’s HCFO-funded study [4], which assessed the cost containment performance of Medicare Advantage plans compared to traditional Medicare, has implications for the premiums beneficiaries might pay in a more concentrated market.