Cross-Market Mergers: Theories of Harm and Limiting Principles

Several studies find evidence of systematic price increases following specific types of “cross-market” hospital mergers and acquisitions—meaning combinations of hospitals that are too far apart to be close substitutes or in the same relevant antitrust market. The literature on cross-market healthcare mergers continues to grow, and antitrust agencies have in recent years investigated transactions on the basis of cross-market concern. As yet, however, no agency has fully litigated a cross-ma