Three Republican congressmen on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce recently wrote to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) urging research into whether hospital consolidations are driving Medicare costs higher.

“Consolidation in the hospital industry certainly appears to be part of a larger trend of consolidation in the health care market more generally,” said Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., Michael C. Burgess, M.D., R-Texas, and Gregg Harper, R-Miss in their letter to MedPAC chairman Francis J. Crosson, M.D. “Hospitals play a significant role in the health care market and are thus likely to have a role in influencing health care costs, particularly as it relates to the Medicare program.”

You can read more on the issue from FierceHealthcare here.