'Bad care and bad experiences': Appalachian hospital merger draws scrutiny at FTC meeting
The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday heard concerns about a controversial merger of two competing hospital systems in northeast Tennessee.
The launch of Ballad Health last year came despite the opposition of FTC officials, who have the power to block mergers on the grounds that reduced competition limits patient choices and can lead to service cuts, price hikes and poorer outcomes.
Tennessee lawmakers, however, passed legislation allowing for a legal mechanism called a "certificate of public advantage" to bypass FTC regulation. The COPA law gave the state the power to grant permission for the merger of the former Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health Systems to form Ballad.
Ballad is now the only hospital option for many of the 1.2 million people in a service area that includes northeast Tennessee and parts of Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina.
Read more: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2019/06/23/ballad-hospital-merger-draws-scrutiny-ftc-meeting/1513398001/
(Knoxville News Sentinel)