Attorney General Maura Healey signed off on a settlement with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health System, clearing the way for the formation of Beth Israel Lahey Health System.
The new health care giant, committed to supporting low-income patients, will rival Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest health system. However, the new deal comes with a line of enforceable conditions that will prevent BILHS from becoming too powerful.
Healey, in a statement, praised the deal, saying it would keep prices down. But Dr. Alan Sager, a professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health, said the conditions are nothing but “lipstick on a pig.”
“No merger is about cutting costs. All hospital mergers are about getting leverage to raise prices,” said Sager.
“This in-between of pretending we have competition when we don’t is the kind of weak and vague wishful thinking that makes our health care costs the second highest in the world,” said Sager.
Healey’s statement said the deal required Beth Israel Lahey Health to “cap its prices, strengthen safety net providers across the region, and invest in needed behavioral health services.”
The price cap will keep BILHS price increases below the state’s benchmark for its first seven years of operation.
“These enforceable conditions, combined with rigorous monitoring and public reporting, create the right incentives to keep care in community settings and ensure all our residents can access the high-quality health care they deserve,” said Healey.
Another condition of the merger requires BILHS to make “good faith” efforts to enroll providers in MassHealth. BILHS will also spend money to improve health care access and focus on support for community health care initiatives.
“The investments required by the settlement will have a real impact on access to treatment for mental health and substance use disorders for patients across Eastern Massachusetts,” said Commissioner Martin Cohen of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission.
Sager said the strict conditions will be “hard to enforce” and are “not much of a reality.”
He added that although the merger won’t hurt the average patient very much, it does not help in moving the Commonwealth toward high-quality, affordable care.
“They always say they are merging to help us but they are really merging to help themselves,” said Sager.
Sager advocates for a heavily regulated system for health care giants or a total breakup of all mega-mergers in the state.
