Bigger hospitals drive cost increases

A study in the May edition of Health Affairs finds that hospitals' power to win steep payment increases—and insurers' relative inability to resist—varies quite a bit from one market to another and from one kind of hospital or hospital network to another. Reputation, location and the type of medical services provided play a role. The trend began well before the health law was passed. And the article doesn't attempt to resolve the dispute in health policy circles over whether new models in the health law, like accountable care organizations, will pave the way for high quality and efficiency or lead to new hospital-dominated monopolies.