A Ranking of All 50 States by Hospital Consolidation

Across the country, rising health care costs are putting immense financial pressure on American families. Rising prices in the health sector are driving up the cost of care. While prices are high for a number of reasons, one major and underappreciated factor driving price increases is rising consolidation among U.S. hospitals. 

Over the past 20 years, there have been around 1,300 mergers among the nation's approximately 5,000 hospitals. Although research has firmly established that hospital mergers can drive up health care prices and lead to job losses throughout the local economy, the Federal Trade Commission took enforcement action against only 13 of those 1,300 mergers.

A new tool from the Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale encourages users to explore the impacts of hospital mergers, closures, ownership changes, and rising market concentration in all 50 states over the last few decades.

In order to measure concentration, our tool defines markets based on a 30-minute travel time. This definition reflects our best effort to approximate a reasonable choice set for patients and does not necessarily represent the relevant market for antitrust enforcement. 

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>> View the interactive <<

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Users can use the tool to compare hospital concentration in hospital markets across the country, including questions like:

• Which states have the largest share of hospitals that are in a highly concentrated market?
• Which states have the lowest share of hospitals that are in a highly concentrated market?
• Which states have experienced the highest number of Red Zone Mergers likely to raise prices by lessening competition?

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Explore the table below and learn more by exploring the tool yourself.

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