In your Monday editorial “Will patients get trampled?” you stated that you hope the federal judge deciding on the legality of the Advocate-NorthShore hospital merger “starts from the premise that Advocate and NorthShore are private entities that deserve freedom to make decisions about their business model(s) that time will prove to be smart or dumb.”
I have two points to make about why I totally disagree:
1. Unlike most other private entities, hospitals do not publish their fees upfront. Thus, I, as a consumer, do not get the freedom I deserve to know exactly what a procedure is going to cost. Hospitals are notorious for not sharing their fee schedules with consumers in advance not only because they can charge more when they are not transparent, but also because different prices are charged depending on the patient’s insurance.
2. The Federal Trade Commission found that the merger between Evanston and Highland Park hospitals in 2000 resulted in the hospital group raising prices by “11 to 18 percent more than other hospitals,” as reported in the Chicago Tribune’s Business section on Jan. 10. In that same article, it mentioned that the FTC found when hospitals join together, “their goal is not just to control costs or improve care but to get increased bargaining power in negotiations with health insurance companies and employers.”
Hospitals are not like other private entities. So, until hospitals become more like other private entities in which consumers know the prices upfront and can choose to take their business elsewhere, I applaud the FTC for acting on behalf of consumers to protect us from potential anti-competitive practices of hospital mergers.
— Belle Lerner, Wilmette
