US: Judge puts Hershey-PinnacleHealth merger on hold for two weeks

An area case commanding national attention in the health care industry continued Thursday, with a federal judge granting regulators’ request to keep two Dauphin County health systems from merging today.

John E. Jones III, United States judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, put the proposed merger of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and PinnacleHealth System on hold for two weeks while legal issues in the case are further scrutinized.

The arguments in the case highlight an intensifying national debate on whether a massive wave of consolidation in health care hurts or helps consumers.

Providers say they need to join forces because President Obama’s health care law is changing the industry, and that being bigger will help them improve quality and lower costs.

Regulators are growing increasingly skeptical of those claims, and are intervening in this and other cases where they say deals would decrease competition, raising costs and reducing quality.

The Federal Trade Commission, which challenges to only about 1 percent of hospital mergers and generally succeeds when it does, suffered a rare defeat Monday when Jones denied its initial request to delay the merger until the agency completes its administrative proceedings on the case.

Full Content: National Law Review

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