“Antitrust strategies could go a long way toward reining in rising health care costs.” Duke University Professor Barak Richman brings expertise in health policy, antitrust, and institutional economics to bear on one of our nation’s greatest structural problems. “When there’s less competition, prices are higher. This has been especially true for America’s hospitals, the largest driver of the increasing cost of health care. When nearby hospitals merge, prices go up.

“The 20th-century model of health care delivery, in which patients get in-person care at designated brick-and-mortar facilities from licensed professionals, is reaching a turning point. Telemedicine, at-home care, and other delivery innovation are offering new alternatives to hospitals. Data analytics are informing insurers on how to better manage patients with chronic illnesses. Together, these innovations might forge a transformation away from a hospital-centric delivery system and towards an age of digital medicine.

” How do we get “there” from “here”?

https://www.politico.com/news/magazin…

Barak Richman argues that hospitals are at the center of the healthcare system but are not being used effectively, with the wrong people providing most of the care at the wrong time and in the wrong place. He suggests redirecting resources away from hospitals towards primary care, preventive care, and outpatient care, investing in healthy communities, and moving away from a system that uses hospitals for less severe care. Richman argues that competition is the solution to problems in the healthcare sector, citing the need for greater scrutiny of the value of care from different providers to break monopolistic control. Richman highlights the need for new policies to prevent future consolidations, asserting that a grassroots approach is necessary to create a different player in the marketplace that can compete with the current hospital-based system.