Pennsylvania health systems are required to give a 90-day notice before closing. It’s a rule that hospitals have ignored in recent years — and a time limit that consumer advocates say isn’t nearly long enough considering the community fallout.
Moreover, the only way the state attorney general gets wind of a physician practice closing or consolidating into a big health system is through word of mouth.
“The only way we find out about cases is if someone tells us about it,” Tracy Wertz, chief deputy, antitrust section, in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, said at an Oct. 4 hearing in Harrisburg. “We rely on parties to give us voluntary information.”
Airing the shortcomings of Pennsylvania’s regulatory review tools was part of a hearing that occurred as the attorney general evaluates the proposed merger of UPMC and Washington Health System, reports The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Read more.
