FromFrom Hospital Consolidation To Lack Of Competition To Higher Costs

Health Care's Overlooked Cost Factor by Eduardo Porter.  The New York Times.  June 11, 2013.  Opinion piece

Read the above article and test your retention with the following questions.

(1)  According to the piece, an overlooked factor in controlling health care costs is the lack of ____________________ in America's biggest business---accounting for almost _____% of the nation's GDP.

(2)  The search for ways to slow spending has so far focused mostly on _______________.

(3)  One of the best-know causes of high costs is excessive ___________________.

(4)  There have been more than __________ hospital system mergers since the mid-1990s.

(5)  In 2002 doctors owned about ______________ physician practices.  By 2008 more than _________ were owned by hospitals.

(6)  Market concentration drives __________ and ______________ down.

(7)  Some studies have found that hospital mergers increase the number of__________.

(8)  Recent evidence suggests that costs are not being drive by ________________ as much as by _______________________.

(9)  While the rate of increase in health care spending has slowed, the rate still outpaces __________ by a significant margin.

(10)  According to the Health Care Cost Institute, health care spending has been entirely driven by ______________ not by more use.

(11)  The ______________ is the government agency worried about hospital competition.

(12)  How could accountable care organizations prove anticompetitive.