Big Med - by David Dranove (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

There is little debate that health care in the United States is in need of reform. But where should those improvements begin? With insurers? Drug makers? The doctors themselves? In Big Med, David Dranove and Lawton Robert Burns argue that we're overlooking the most ubiquitous cause of our costly and underperforming system: megaproviders, the expansive health care organizations that have become the face of American medicine. Your local hospital is likely part of one. Your doctors, too. And the megaproviders are bad news for your health and your wallet.

Drawing on decades of combined expertise in health care consolidation, Dranove and Burns trace Big Med's emergence in the 1990s, followed by its swift rise amid false promises of scale economies and organizational collaboration. In the decades since, megaproviders have gobbled up market share and turned independent physicians into salaried employees of big bureaucracies, while delivering on none of their early promises. For patients this means higher costs and lesser care. Meanwhile, physicians report increasingly low morale, making it all but impossible for most systems to implement meaningful reforms.

In Big Med, Dranove and Burns combine their respective skills in economics and management to provide a nuanced explanation of how the provision of health care has been corrupted and submerged under consolidation. They offer practical recommendations for improving competition policies that would reform megaproviders to actually achieve the efficiencies and quality improvements they have long promised.
This is an essential read for understanding the current state of the health care system in America-and the steps urgently needed to create an environment of better care for all of us.

Review Quotes

"David Dranove and Lawton Burn's new collaboration Big Med: Megaproviders and the High Cost of Health Care in America provides readers with a comprehensive tutorial on consolidation in United States healthcare markets over the past 40 years. . . . anyone with a serious interest in the prices of U.S. healthcare will want to have this rigorous and timely treatment on their bookshelf."-- "Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics"

"The book is highly readable, even punctuated with pleasant moments of dry wit... The book also has what I call perfect pitch. It dives deep into the psychology of the various players, accurately explaining their hopes and fears... The authors' perfect pitch--knowing exactly what the various players are thinking and feeling, and why--merges into the book's third great value: the book rings true."-- "Law & Liberty"

"David Dranove and Lawton R. Burns offer an exhaustive . . . analysis of the consolidation of US hospitals and the effect it has had on both the cost and quality of health care. . . . As the country tries to rein in the cost of health care, Big Med offers a forceful argument for focusing our attention on hospitals."-- "Washington Monthly"

"For years, allies of big medicine have argued that Bigger is Better. Dranove and Burns take on that argument and show it is not true. They point out how big medicine is failing and how it can be reformed. This book is wonderfully informed and thoughtfully presented."--David Cutler, Harvard University

"Big Med is an absolute treasure trove of health care antitrust history, offering an important overview of the last two decades of the US health care industry through a competition lens. Its findings will appeal to health systems leaders and health economists alike."
--Melissa Thomasson, Julian Lange Professor of Economics at Miami University and research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research

"Incorporating tough-minded analysis with powerful rhetoric, this book describes why the US healthcare delivery system fails us, why mergers are unlikely to help, and what industry and policy leaders can do to turn things around."
--Leemore Dafny, Harvard Business School

About the Author

David Dranove is the Walter McNerney Distinguished Professor of Health Industry Management at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he is also professor of strategy and faculty director of the Kellogg PhD program. Lawton Robert Burns is the James Joo-Jin Kim Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he is also professor of healthcare management, professor of management, and codirector of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management.