News & Media

One factor driving health care cost increases is rising hospital consolidation.

Oregon has quietly become ground zero in the fight over who controls hospitals and what patients pay. A new national ranking pegs the state as one of the most tightly consolidated hospital markets in the country, just as a headline-grabbing OHSU - Legacy merger went down in flames and lawmakers in Salem moved to curb corporate control of medical practices. For patients, employers, and insurers, that mix of big deals, regulatory muscle, and fresh law is reshaping how care is bought and sold across the state.

Healthcare revenue rose faster than all other services categories in 2025, as increased prices for care and growing demand from an aging population affect the industry.

"We've got a country that's struggling, and this is part of our answer," said Zack Cooper, director of Yale’s new Health Care Affordability Lab.

The hospital sector accounts for the largest share of U.S. health care spending with nearly 1 in 3 health care dollars spent on hospitals.

West Virginia University Medicine’s pending takeover of Independence Health System would reduce competition and likely drive up patient costs, according to the Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale.

Colorado's health care system is heavily consolidated among a few hospital systems, a dynamic that is raising concerns among state lawmakers.

Yale's Health Care Affordability Lab says the combination would reduce competition and likely increase premiums. Pennsylvania has seen 35 so-called red zone mergers.

Highly concentrated—and, by extension, less economically competitive—hospital markets are ubiquitous across the country and the norm in rural states Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota, according to a market analysis tool unveiled this week by Yale University’s recently launched Health Care Affordability Lab.