Patients, doctors press FTC to beef up hospital merger scrutiny

Comments to antitrust regulators lay bare Americans’ anger and disillusionment over consolidation’s effects on all sectors of the economy, but especially health care.

A 24-year-old wrote that after his hometown hospital in Indiana merged with a bigger group, his mom, who worked there, found it harder to provide good care amid staff cuts and reduced support.

An internal medicine doctor in Wisconsin said after his hospital merged, colleagues were fired, drug shortages got worse, and prices skyrocketed.

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