1. What does it mean to have market power? Market power is the capability to negotiate and attain a more favorable value for one’s products/services (Frakt, 2011). An insurance company that has market power means that it is selling its plans at a higher price than other players in the industry and gaining elevated profits as a result. Market power can come from different sources. First, it can be obtained due to differences in healthcare products and services. Some firms can have higher market power because buyers perceive them as offering higher quality or lower costs. Second, the concentration of the market can also increase the market power of healthcare firms. Dafny (2010) evaluated the competitiveness of the health insurance industry and determined if health insurers charged higher premiums compared to other profitable firms. He noted that this form of "direct price discrimination" is possible only in imperfectly competitive settings. …show more content…
Partners Healthcare is a product of the 1994 merger between Mass General with Brigham and Boston Women’s hospitals. Since then, it has expanded services and market coverage through adding community and specialized hospitals and clinics. Partners Healthcare has market power because of its strong pricing power in Boston. Owing to its market power, patients pay high prices for its services. Moreover, Partners derives market power from a highly concentrated market. Kirkwood (2016) noted the dangers of allowing big healthcare firms to merge. Using the examples of large insurance companies that entered into mergers, they only increased competitive risks by enhancing barriers to entry which resulted in monopsony power over small providers, higher market power, and greater premiums through their discriminatory advantage over less powerful insurance companies (Kirkwood,
First the story of the Standard Oil Company briefly describes the limits of power. When Rockefeller was trying to take over the market he formed the “South Improvement Plan. When this occurred the public grew very angry with the price of trains, so nobody went on the railroads and Rockefeller eventually got the bill, until prices changed. This is an example of how the consumers, make the company run and when nobody wants to buy your product the individual must adjust. Another example would be when the Standard Oil Company was primarily the only oil company and was forced to split into thirty nine different independent companies. This shows that one business cannot control the entire market and interventions will need to be done accordingly so that a company does not have all the power.
Bigger hospitals increasing market share Loss of Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement Decline in revenue Loss of patients
One mode to achieve the comprehensive healthcare services is through the mergers and acquisitions. However, during the course when the integrated company takes place, there are many challenges that the new company should deal to have concerted mission to achieve the desired goals.
Based on the case study provided: Hospital A, Porter Regional Medical Centre (Hosp. A) & Hospital B Banner Regional Medical Centre and Turner Geriatric Centre (Hosp. B) merged to form a consolidated entity named “Portsmith Regional Medical Centre” (PRMC). Both Hospital A and B were fully accredited hospital, with “state-of- art diagnostic technology” which included MRI and CAT scanners, 24-hour physician staffed emergency centers. Both Hospital A and Hospital B are located in a small community of 60,000 people in southeastern part of Idaho.
Health Maintenance Organizations, or HMO’s, are a very important part of the American health care system. Also referred to as managed care programs, HMO's are combinations of doctors and insurance companies that are formed into one organization. This organization provides treatment to its members at fixed costs and decides on what treatment, if any, will be given based on the patient's or doctor's current health plan. Sometimes, no treatment is given at all. HMO's main concerns are to control costs and supposedly provide the best possible treatment to their patients. But it seems to the naked eye that instead their main goal is to get more people enrolled so that they can maintain or raise current premiums paid by consumers using their service. For HMO's, profit comes first- not patients' lives.
The competing external stakeholders seek to attract the focal organization’s dependents. These competitors may be direct competitors for patients or they may be competing for skilled personnel. The patients hold the role of seeking care. They demand that they receive quality care in the organization and that the care is consistent. The patients play a role in the organization because the organization needs the patients to run the facility. The organization provides a service that the patients need and demand. The source of influence from external stakeholders comes from control of strategic resources materials, labor and
Traurig, G., (2008/2009). Turmoil in the healthcare industry: what about the patients? The Americas Restructuring and Involvency Guide. Retrieved from http://www. americasrestructuring.com/08_SF/p100-106
Background: Formed by a merger in 1996, CareGroup is the second largest health care organization that serves eastern Massachusetts. CareGroup includes a variety of physician offices, academic health centers, and community hospitals. Some of the hospitals that are part of CareGroup include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Mount Auburn Hospital, and New England Baptist Hospital. There were several factors that resulted in the merger of CareGroup, and these factors include gaining contracting power over insurance companies (HMO’s), creating an integrated system across hospitals, and achieving a competitive advantage in terms of prices.
This led to intensive rivalry. Bargaining Power of Customers: High bargaining power because of stiff competition, and a large number of suppliers offering similar products to choose from. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Bargaining power of suppliers is
While even medical facilities, like hospitals, might create localized monopolies because there may not be another alternative offering the same services they are. These monopolies can create economic carelessness due to social loss from retaining higher profits from personal gain. Which is why the government should be involved as a regulatory body to ensure that contracts are fair with facilities and
Healthcare organizations are designed to meet the healthcare needs of individuals and promote a healthy community. The three healthcare organizations that interest me are: The Heart Hospital Baylor of Plano, Texas Health Center for Diagnostics & Surgery Plan, and Parkland Health and Hospital System. Due to evolving healthcare industry, focusing on just patients and physicians is no longer a marketing strategy. According to Mycek (2015), “Marketing teams need to expand their consideration set and focus on the new 5 P’s of Healthcare Marketing” (p. 1). The new 5 P’s of marketing now impact the marketing potential of healthcare organizations by offering changes in sales rep – physician access, purchasing, formulary decision making, and growing patient empowerment. The new 5 P’s of marketing are: Physicians, Patients, Payers, Public, and The Presence of Politics.
When two companies decide to combine forces and become one bigger, richer mega company, it is called merging. This process forms a new company, combining the money and ideas of what used to be two different entities into one. This, however, is not the only thing that results from merging two different companies, and since we will be discussing the merging of two companies in the pharmaceutical industry, the impact will be incredible. Of course, the merging of two companies will not only have positive impacts but it will have many negative side effects as well. Furthermore, depending on the size of the merging companies and the goals of the people leading these companies there will always be contradictions according to the long-term goals or short-term goals depending on what both parties’ interests are. Our company, Verduga Inc. is contemplating to merge with Coronado-Salinas Inc., so before we rush into such a merger we must contemplate the positive and negative aspects of such a move. When it comes to mergers there are always many possible positive and negative impacts due to the effects of merging; these effects more widely impact the fields on research and development, on employment and management, stocks and shareholders, monopolization, and ingenuity.
Mergers and acquisitions immediately impact organizations with changes in ownership, in ideology, and eventually, in practice. There are multiple reasons, motives, economic forces and institutional factors that can, taken together or in isolation, influence corporate decisions to engage in mergers or acquisitions. The financial risks of merging with or acquiring an organization in another country and how those risks can be mitigated are important issues for corporations to conduct research on. This paper will examine the sensible and dubious reasons for mergers and acquisitions and the benefits and costs of the cash and stock transactions.
In this paper the effects of firms with market power on economic welfare will be briefly examined. The first part outlines some of the negative effects of market power; the second exemplifies some of the benefits of market power and the case of Microsoft is used to support these arguments. In conclusion, an overview of the role of competition authorities and competition policy is carried out.
Some economists suggest that the market for healthcare is different from other competitive industries and therefore cannot act the same way. In principles, we learn the basic assumptions of a competitive market, (1) goods offered for sale are homogenous, (2) there must be many buyers and sellers so that each has a negligible impact on the market price and (3) For markets to work efficiently there can be no significant information failure affecting the decisions of the producers and consumers. In perfect competition, product’s must be homogeneous which means that goods that individual producers cannot alter or differentiate to collect a higher price. Health care is a heterogeneous product because the patient can experience a range of outcomes. There is an ongoing battle between hospitals and insurance companies. In theory, insurance companies negotiate with hospitals for a reduced rate. One of my favorites quotes I stumbled upon is from economist Uwe Reinhardt in regards to Obama and Obamacare “I wish I had a half hour with him to explain it to him. If you pit hundreds of little insurers against each other, what makes any one think that each of them has enough market clout to bargain successfully with a hospital? So I don 't think this public health plan, adding yet one more competitor, is going to bring costs down at