Impact of Hospital-Owned Physician Organizations on Health Care Prices, Premiums, Quality, and Costs

The UC Berkeley study team will use three methods to gauge the effects of hospital–physician integration. First, it will analyze annual trends, at the national and state levels, in the number of specialist and primary care physicians working in organizations owned by a hospital between 2010 and 2017. Second, the researchers will analyze a national database of commercial health insurance claims to determine how hospital‐owned physician organizations are influencing health care prices, quality of care, and total costs. They will estimate whether these outcomes vary based on premerger market shares. Third, the team will use additional data to estimate the impact of increased integration on health insurance premiums.