Ascension Health's plan to sell four hospitals in Michigan is just the latest in a wave of consolidations in Michigan that's reducing competition among health care systems.
That could accellerate the already increasing cost of health insurance for many Michigan health care consumers.
Ascension says it will finalize the sale of the last of its hospitals bearing the Ascension name this summer, after earlier forming a joint partnership with Henry Ford for six of its hospitals to be operated under the Henry Ford name, and selling three hospitals to MyMichigan Health.
Allan Baumgarten is a Minneapolis-based analyst of health care markets. He said Ascension's departure comes in the wake of Michigan Medicine buying a Lansing based health system, Sparrow, and Spectrum Health merging with Beaumont Health.
He said while consolidations can help hospitals systems improve their profit margins, it's not considered a good trend for health insurance consumers and for patients.
Health insurance plans are less able to negotiate lower costs for care, he explained, when there are fewer health systems to negotiate with.
"The level of competition between health systems is going down [in Michigan] and the ones that remain are larger and larger. Research shows that this usually results in higher prices. And there's not much evidence of improvements in quality."
Three years ago, Spectrum Health, headquartered in Grand Rapids, merged with Beaumont in southeast Michigan, forming Corewell Health. And then Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor acquired Sparrow Health System in Lansing.
Corewell Health and Michigan Medicine both say the mergers will improve patient access to statewide high quality care, with Corewell adding its merger is expected to make health care more affordable.
