A new report from PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) forecasts a similar cost trend in the healthcare space for 2019 as compared to previous years – 6%, falling in line with growth of 5.5-7% over the past five years. And one of the most significant factors driving costs in their analysis is the continued number of “megamergers” going on (think CVS-Aetna and Cigna-Express Scripts). The HRI report predicts that through 2019, a full 93% of urban hospital markets will be “highly concentrated”, up from 84% in 2012 and 77% roughly a decade ago.

You can read more from PwC here.