Beth Israel-Lahey Health merger to be reviewed by state agency

The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission will review the impacts of a proposed merger between Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Burlington, Massachusetts-based Lahey Health and three other hospitals.

According to the State House News Service, there are anticompetitive concerns with the merger, such as the combined entity having too much leverage to demand higher rates from insurers and customers and steering patients away from lower-priced competitors. The systems argue, as most merging healthcare organizations do, that economies of scale will allow them to lower spending and improve quality.

“This is really the largest proposed health care transaction in Massachusetts in decades,” said Katherine Scarborough Mills, the commission’s policy director for market performance. “The combined entity here would have nearly the size of market share statewide of Partners HealthCare system.”

If the deal goes through, Partners and the new combined entity would control more than 50 percent of the state’s inpatient care market.

The commission doesn’t have the power to block the deal, but its findings will be passed onto agencies with greater authority, including the state’s attorney general and public health department.

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