“Our focus is not on getting bigger,” Mr. D’Aquila said. He said Saint Raphael, which was half empty when it was taken over, is now seeing record numbers of patients.
Systems also say they are trying to improve the care for smaller communities. “We’re actively trying to move care toward places that are accessible,” Hartford’s chief executive, Elliot Joseph, said.
Patients wind up paying more
But patients rarely reap the rewards of lower insurance premiums or out-of-pocket expenses when mergers occur.
Hartford executives talk about reducing the total cost of care in the same breath that they discuss the need to charge insurers more. “The math for us is how we move the care out of the hospitals while maintaining our financial stability,” Mr. Joseph said.
To defend higher rates, many hospitals cite low reimbursements from government sources, particularly Medicaid, and highlight their role as a safety net. “We’re left with no choice,” Mr. D’Aquila said.
Others, like Hartford, negotiate prices as a single entity, forcing health insurers to include all of their hospitals in a network or risk losing access in areas where there are no alternatives.
Hartford “has taken over so many hospitals and practices that, with the Anthem dispute, we felt we had no choices at all,” Sharry Goldman, a Storrs, Conn., resident, told state lawmakers. Although Hartford and Anthem Blue Cross, the insurer, eventually reached an agreement, Connecticut passed a law this year requiring hospitals and insurers to extend previous contracts for two months to protect consumers when the parties are at an impasse.
