Science

Northside Hospital, Gwinnett Medical Merger May Cost Patients

September 14th, 2015

Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs, Georgia, is planning to merge with Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Lee Echols, a spokesman with Northside, says the merger is not about becoming a bigger system. He says the hospitals want to offer patients more options and create more jobs.

“The cost of care is affected by many factors, but we believe that combining the strengths of Northside and Gwinnett Medical will ultimately be of great benefit to patients and their families,” Echols says.

University of Alabama economics professor Kevin Pflum says there has been a big increase in hospital mergers over the last two decades ─ and especially in the last five years.

“There’s always this long-term struggle between insurers to figure out how to enhance their market power, and this is just another outcome of that struggle to enhance their bottom-line,” Pflum says.

Pflum says after these kinds of mergers, insurance companies usually reimburse hospitals 10 to 15 percent more for their services.

But he says there’s no clear evidence on whether it helps or hurts a patient’s wallet. Pflum says sometimes insurance companies pass along the cost to patients in the form of higher premiums.