By HFT Staff

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is taking actions to promote competition and transparency in the nation’s healthcare system designed to improve the safety and quality of nursing homes and hospitals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is releasing data publicly on mergers, acquisitions, consolidations and changes of ownership from 2016-2022 for hospitals and nursing homes enrolled in Medicare. This data is will help researchers, state and federal enforcement agencies and the public better understand the impacts of consolidation on healthcare prices and quality of care. 

HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is also releasing an analysis of the new CMS data examining trends in changes of ownership over the past six years. 

These new data and analysis support President Joe Biden’s executive order on promoting competition and advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of improving transparency around nursing facility ownership and enhancing nursing home safety and quality. 

ASPE’s report identifies several findings: 

• Changes of ownership have been much more common in nursing homes than hospitals over the past six years. 
• There is also wide ownership variation by state. For instance, 19 percent of hospitals in South Carolina were sold during this period, while most states had fewer than 4 percent of hospitals change ownership. 
• A majority (62.3 percent) of skilled nursing facilities that were purchased have one organizational owner, 6.9 percent have multiple organizations owners, while 18.2 percent have only individual owners and 12.7 percent have both types of owners.