Profits over patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital system is allegedly using its heavyweight status among city healthcare providers to force insurers to accept \u201csubstantially higher prices\u201d \u2014 blocking New Yorkers from affordable health insurance, according to the Department of Justice. <\/p>\n
In an anti-trust lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the DOJ said NY Presbyterian has been striking \u201cunlawful contracts\u201d with insurers to prevent patients from being shown less expensive health plans. <\/p>\n
A new anti-trust lawsuit from the Department ofJustice accuses NewYork-Presbyterian of forcing \u201cunlawful\u201d contracts that raise prices for health insurance citywide. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cAmericans deserve the benefits of vigorous competition,\u201d the lawsuit states, arguing that the hospital system\u2019s \u201canticompetitive conduct\u201d has left families with fewer choices and higher costs.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit aims to cease their restrictive plans and restore \u201caccess to budget-conscious health insurance plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
NYP holds a 30% market share in Manhattan \u2014 and over 4,000 impatient beds across eight campuses citywide, the suit states.<\/p>\n
Due to their presence, insurers \u201ccannot viably do business in New York City\u201d without including access to at least some of their facilities, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
But instead of allowing insurers to negotiate which facilities to include, the hospital system demands an \u201call-or-nothing\u201d contract, meaning that all insurance plans are forced to include every facility \u2014 even the most expensive options \u2014 if they want to do business with NYP at all, the suit claims.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s despite the fact that the hospital system charges far more than competitors at NYU, Mount Sinai and Northwell, government lawyers allege.<\/p>\n
Those restrictions helps insulate the system from \u201cprice competition,\u201d resulting in \u201creduced choice of insurance plans, higher healthcare costs and less competition for high-quality healthcare for employers and patients who purchase healthcare in New York City,\u201d the suit claims.<\/p>\n
New York Presbyterian holds a 30 percent market share in Manhattan, the suit claims \u2014 and over 4,000 impatient beds across eight campuses citywide. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than offer consumers choice, New York-Presbyterian uses its market power to protect its margins, impede competition from rival hospitals, and prevent employers and unions from creating these plans,\u201d said Omeed A. Assefi, acting assistant attorney general from the DOJ\u2019s anti-trust office.<\/p>\n
DOJ lawyers included one example where NewYork-Presbyterian allegedly \u201cstopped\u201d an insurer from moving outpatient colonoscopies from the hospital to a more affordable provider.<\/p>\n
\u201cNYP observed that even stopping a single payor from moving outpatient colonoscopies out of NYP\u2019s hospitals was \u2018worth ~250k [dollars] to [a physician group in NYP\u2019s system] and multiples more to [NYP],\u2019\u201d the suit claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The filing even cites a \u201crecent strategic planning document,\u201d where NewYork-Presbyterian allegedly voiced concern that, if patients had access to cheaper options, they could experience \u201cpricing pressure,\u201d which could \u201cimpact [NYP\u2019s] margins.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hospital called the suit \u201cmeritless.\u201d Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
NewYork-Presbyterian said it was \u201cdisappointed\u201d that the DOJ filed the lawsuit \u2014 calling it \u201cwithout merit\u201d \u2014 because they were already engaged in \u201cproductive discussions\u201d with the DOJ over their contracting practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not seek to exclude any other hospital from any insurer\u2019s network,\u201d said hospital spokesperson Angela Karafazli. \u201cNor do we require more favorable treatment than any other hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe obligation of insurance companies is to their shareholders, while ours is to our patients,\u201d she said. \u201cWe believe all New Yorkers should be able to choose their health care provider.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Profits over patients.\u00a0 The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital system is allegedly using its heavyweight status among city healthcare providers to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[71684,383,277,57,9,22196,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-176673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-antitrust-law","tag-department-of-justice","tag-manhattan-federal-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-presbyterian-hospital","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}