By Mark Taylor, Post-Tribune correspondent
Just because another hospital is coming to Northwest Indiana, consumers should not expect competition to drive health care costs down.
That's the prediction of industry experts in the wake of South Bend's Memorial Hospital & Health System's announcement last week it would build a $225 million facility in Valparaiso.
Gene Diamond, regional chief executive officer of the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services, said the entry of a new competitor into the market will bring new jobs, expanded services and greater competition to Valparaiso. But it will come with a cost.
"This facility will cost more than $200 million," he said. "The new owners of Porter plan to spend more than $100 million. Who will pay for all that? Will it affect the cost of health care? The answer is undeniably, yes."
That effect could well ripple throughout the region.
Patricia Hofstra, a Gary attorney who specializes in health care with the Chicago office of law firm Duane Morris, predicts competing local systems from Community Health System in Munster, which operates St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart; The Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus in Merrillville and Saint Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point will likely beef up their market presence.
"They're going to spend a lot of not-for-profit dollars to persuade their patients to stay with them," she said.
She expects that prices will rise because of the increased number of hospitals, which will likely mean more tests and procedures performed on increasingly more expensive equipment.
"I don't think competition ever brings down health care prices," she said. "Part of that is because most people don't shop based on cost or even know how much it costs."
Anthem spokesman Tony Felts said that since 2000, Indiana hospitals have spent more than $4 billion on capital expenditures.
"People should be asking if this is a response to market demand or represents a duplication of existing health care services in the area."