UNH Today

The University of New Hampshire (UNH) has partnered with the New Hampshire Department of Justice and its Health Care Consumer Protection Advisory Commission to establish the UNH Center for Studying Healthcare Markets. The four-year pilot program, with an estimated budget of $1.6 million, aims to analyze trends in healthcare market consolidation and assess its impact on consumers.

The funding includes financial support for faculty, Ph.D. students, and data acquisition to facilitate these goals.

“Healthcare is vital to Granite Staters and understanding how market shifts affect access and affordability is essential,” said Attorney General John Formella. “This center will help ensure that consolidation doesn’t undermine consumer choice or transparency. Our goal is to give policymakers and the public the data they need to protect healthcare access all throughout New Hampshire.”

How the Center was Conceptualized

As part of the Department of Justice’s recent investigations into proposed hospital mergers, the state obtained funds to be used for the benefit of healthcare consumers in New Hampshire. These funds are held in the New Hampshire Healthcare Consumer Protection Trust Fund.

The state entered a Final Judgment with Exeter Hospital and Beth Isreal Lahey Health in June 2023. In that settlement, the priority use of the funds is to develop a health care market research entity or program to conduct studies and publish information regarding the impact of health care provider consolidation in the New Hampshire health care delivery system. The grant funds will be used to accomplish this goal of the settlement.

Investigating Healthcare Market Trends

The center will examine hospital, physician, and private insurance market consolidation. Using data-driven methodologies, the research will compare New Hampshire’s market trends with both nearby states and broader national patterns. The findings will be made available to stakeholders such as the public, government agencies, healthcare advocates, and policymakers through the center’s website by featuring visual infographics, research papers, and policy briefs.

“Better understanding how healthcare consolidation affects not just prices but also healthcare quality and access to care is really important for informed policymaking,” said Herring, emphasizing the significance of the project. “Our center’s faculty and student affiliates will also conduct new research into understudied outcomes. For example, how mergers may impact non-profit hospitals’ community benefits or non-profitable service lines. And in turn, we can offer our expertise and data infrastructure to assist state agencies as they navigate these ongoing challenges.”

New Consumer Impact Studies

In addition to monitoring market trends, the center plans to conduct six major research projects on how healthcare consolidation affects service availability, care quality, financial efficiency, and electronic health record (EHR) adoption. Key research questions include whether consolidation leads to hospitals cutting less-profitable service lines, changes in patient care experiences, and shifts in community benefits offered by nonprofit hospitals.

A critical area of emphasis for the center will be translating these research findings on market concentration to salient effects for New Hampshire consumers. That will include both their new findings, but also prior research on providers' prices and insurance premiums.

“The role of the Commission is to advise the Department of Justice on the use of the Health Care Consumer Protection Trust Fund,” said Yvonne Goldsberry, chair of the NH Healthcare Consumer Protection Advisory Commission. “This new research center will help inform the Commission’s work as it evaluates the many factors influencing the healthcare marketplace.”

Funding and Future Outlook

The budget for the initiative includes dedicated research time for faculty, tuition and stipend support for several Economics PhD students, and proprietary data licenses. UNH is contracted to receive $1.6 million in pilot funding from the state’s Health Care Consumer Protection Trust Fund over the next four fours to support the center’s initial operations with the goal to grow the center for future long-term impact.

“The resources devoted to our center represent a long-term investment towards improving evidence-based healthcare policy,” Herring said. “My UNH colleagues and I really look forward to starting our work.”