<\/p>\n
State Rep. Tom Oliverson speaks during a rally about school vouchers Tuesday March 21, 2023, at Cypress Christian School in Houston.<\/p>\n
Jon Shapley\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n
State Rep. Tom Oliverson has made lowering health care costs a top goal in the Legislature, even as the anesthesia conglomerate where he’s a partner and investor has been accused of driving them up.<\/p>\n
The company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners, has been under the microscope<\/a> of the Federal Trade Commission since 2023 for swallowing up smaller clinics and ratcheting up prices.<\/p>\n Now it’s being blamed for raising insurance premiums for hundreds of thousands of Texas teachers.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A top official with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas recently singled out<\/a> USAP before a legislative committee, where Oliverson is a member, for costing teachers $11 million more per year last year \u2014 an outlier even by the standards of America\u2019s costly medical system.<\/p>\n Oliverson, who has made health care affordability one of his stated priorities, sat silent as the Retirement System official explained that the cost equated to a 0.4% increase on premiums for more than 400,000 of the state\u2019s active teachers.<\/p>\n The Republican doctor said he was silent because he didn\u2019t know what to say.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was all pretty shocking stuff to hear,\u201d Oliverson said Friday. \u201cHere I am sitting on a committee and they\u2019re accusing my company of wrongdoing, basically.”<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The statements sparked a behind-the-scenes campaign by USAP to rebut the retirement agency\u2019s claims as House lawmakers look for ways to reduce health care costs during next year\u2019s session.<\/p>\n The company, which was sued by the Federal Trade Commission<\/a> in 2023, met with lawmakers afterward and told them it had never raised rates above the rate of inflation. A spokesperson told the Houston Chronicle that TRS\u2019 claims are \u201cpatently false.\u201d<\/p>\n The Retirement System is not backing down, however. A spokesperson noted that last month Chief Health Care Officer Katrina Daniel repeated the claim to a different House committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we look at them compared to other anesthesiologists, we pay about twice as much,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n The dispute emerged as House lawmakers probe whether health care industry consolidation could be to blame for perpetually increasing health care costs. Daniel cited U.S. Anesthesia Partners and the lawsuit by the FTC, which alleged the company employed a deliberate strategy to acquire anesthesiology firms and use its market power to charge \u201cabsurdly high rates across Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n The private equity-backed company first acquired Houston\u2019s largest anesthesia firm in 2012, followed by the largest firms in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Amarillo, according to a March FTC filing<\/a>. The FTC alleged the company used other anticompetitive practices, such as paying a competitor $9 million a year to stay out of the Dallas area. It acquired 15 firms in total and is Texas\u2019 largest<\/a> anesthesia practice.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cUSAP ultimately took many millions of dollars out of the pockets of Texas employers and patients,\u201d the agency wrote.<\/p>\n The company, which operates in nine states, has argued that the prices came with better care and that regulators were using \u201cflawed legal theories.\u201d The company told the Chronicle that it regularly exceeds Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services quality benchmarks. In April, the FTC announced<\/a> it had reached a settlement with the company, which has not yet been released.<\/p>\n U.S. Anesthesia Partners has ties to some of the state\u2019s most influential doctors. Dr. Sherif Zaafran, president of the Texas Medical Board, is president of the company\u2019s clinical governance board, according to his LinkedIn. Dr. John Zerwas, chancellor of the University of Texas system and a former longtime state lawmaker, was a founding partner and executive until 2019.<\/p>\n Oliverson, an anesthesiologist from Cypress, joined the company as a managing partner and investor when it bought Houston\u2019s largest firm, he said. He said he oversees eight people in a hospital in his House district and has no say into the company\u2019s practices or acquisitions.<\/p>\n He said he has not read the FTC\u2019s filings against the company, but said the pending settlement will require the company to give up market share.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t love the idea of consolidation in health care marketplaces,\u201d he said. \u201cDoes that affect prices? Yes, I\u2019m sure it does.\u201d<\/p>\n But he said he disagrees with the claims by TRS, noting that the company has not made any acquisitions in six years.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have been completely unable to verify any of the statements they\u2019ve made,\u201d Oliverson said. \u201cThe math doesn\u2019t math.\u201d<\/p>\n Two other legislators on the Select Committee for Health Care Affordability, including the chairperson, Republican Rep. James Frank<\/a> of Wichita Falls, said they heard from the company after the April hearing.<\/p>\n Frank told the Chronicle that he discussed the issue with TRS and that its numbers show that \u201cTexas teachers are paying about twice as much for anesthesia from doctors in the USAP network compared to independent anesthesiologists.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s yet another sign of the larger problem in all of healthcare: prices are increasingly driven by market power, not by better patient care,\u201d he said in a text message. \u201cAs hospitals, physician groups, and insurance companies become larger and more vertically integrated, patients end up paying more.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something that should concern every Texas patient and every Texas legislator,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Many Americans blame insurance companies for rising premiums but are unaware that medical monopolies are one of the primary drivers, said Vivian Ho, a professor and Chair in Health Economics at Rice University.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been talking with HR executives for the last two years, trying to get someone to listen to this,\u201d Ho said.<\/p>\n Among those monopolies, companies like U.S. Anesthesia Partners \u2014\u00a0which focus on one type of practice and are run by doctors \u2014\u00a0are problematic, but not the worst offenders, she said. The biggest drivers are hospitals and regional health systems that squelch all competition<\/a>, studies have shown.<\/p>\n So far, only large public employers reliant on shrinking tax dollars have been paying attention, Ho said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re short on money. They\u2019re running out,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is becoming a strain on every public employer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Rep. 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