
Who polices hospitals merging across markets? States give different answers.
CBSN
St. Louis' largest health system, BJC HealthCare, plans to merge with Kansas City's second-largest, Saint Luke's Health System, uniting more than 28 hospitals on both sides of Missouri by the end of this year.
The merger, which would span markets 250 miles apart and include facilities in neighboring Kansas and Illinois, is just one of the latest in a quickly consolidating hospital industry. Cross-market deals accounted for more than half of all hospital mergers and acquisitions during the last decade, according to a paper from experts on antitrust law. Today, nearly 60% of health systems operate multiple hospitals in different geographic markets.
Not only are such deals more common, they can increase costs for patients. Merged hospitals in thesame state but in different markets raised prices as much as 10% compared with other hospitals, researchers found after analyzing past deals. A separate study found stand-alone hospitals raised prices 17% after they were acquired by a hospital company in another market.

Yangon — Myanmar's military leader lauded President Trump and asked him to lift sanctions, the ruling junta said Friday, after a tariff letter from the U.S. president that it has taken as Washington's first public recognition of its rule. Min Aung Hlaing endorsed Mr. Trump's false claim that the 2020 U.S. election was stolen, and thanked him for shutting down funding for U.S.-backed media outlets that have long provided independent coverage of conflict-wracked Myanmar.

After years of unsuccessful attempts to finance and build a public alarm network that would warn residents of Kerr County, Texas, about dangerous flooding, officials in the region, nicknamed "flash flood alley," were going to start developing a centralized flood monitoring system this summer to help leaders and emergency managers plan ahead.

Washington — The Senate is expected to vote next week on a request from the White House to claw back funding for international aid and public broadcasting. But the funding for rural radio and television stations — sometimes an area's sole source for emergency warnings and other news — has sparked concern among some Senate Republicans, especially after the recent devastating flash floods in Texas.