This piece looks at market-based solutions to the market-domination issues raised by the expansion of such powerful systems as Partners HealthCare, in Massachusetts, that have displayed great pricing power, offending many insurance payers in the process.

The writers say:

”We need policies that challenge expansions and preserve competition, not those that assist the dominant player {like Partners}. …encouraging payment reform that rewards quality and cost-effectiveness; liberalizing scope-of-practice regulations, licensing rules, and other prohibitions to allow more efficient use of human resources; ensuring that professional regulations, state boundaries, and FDA rules do not impede telemedicine and digital products that enable mobile health management; and refining anti-kickback rules and reimbursement restrictions to enable providers to pursue creative, integrated ventures that could revolutionize the delivery of care. And there is much that  {state} attorneys general can do to promote such innovation-oriented policies.”