Hospital Consolidation and Prices

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Ohio Attorney General have filed a civil antitrust complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio accusing OhioHealth, a dominant nonprofit system that owns or manages 16 hospitals and outpatient facilities around Columbus, of using contract clauses to block insurers from offering lower‑cost health plans since at least 2003. The suit alleges OhioHealth, which DOJ says holds roughly a 40% share of the local hospital market and charges commercial insurers about 50% more than rivals, imposed steering and plan‑design restrictions that prevented employers and patients from choosing lower‑premium networks that exclude or limit OhioHealth. Acting antitrust chief Omeed Assefi, newly installed after Gail Slater’s ouster, cast the case as part of a Trump‑era focus on affordability and said multiple investigations into dominant hospital systems are underway nationwide, echoing past DOJ actions like the 2018 Atrium Health settlement. If the government prevails or secures a consent decree, insurers could gain new freedom to build cheaper networks in central Ohio—potentially lowering premiums and out‑of‑pocket costs but also intensifying pressure on large systems that have relied on all‑or‑nothing contracting leverage. The case will be closely watched by employers, insurers, hospital groups and antitrust lawyers as an early signal of how aggressively the reshuffled DOJ Antitrust Division is prepared to go after hospital contracting practices that many economists say have fueled U.S. medical price inflation.