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  3. Hostile takeovers are never polite. One fight in America, however, has become particularly ugly. In December a huge stock market

Hostile takeovers are never polite. One fight in America, however, has become particularly ugly. In December a huge stock market

admin2021-09-17  7
问题    Hostile takeovers are never polite. One fight in America, however, has become particularly ugly. In December a huge stock market-traded hospital company, Community Health Systems, announced that it wanted to buy another, Tenet Healthcare, for $ 3.3 billion. The bid soon became a quarrel. In the saga’s most recent chapter, Tenet filed a lawsuit accusing Community of overbilling government and private health-insurance schemes.
   Although this bid battle has become unusually hateful, it is in line with a broader trend of consolidation in the huge but fragmented business of providing hospital care. In 2009 America’s hospitals soaked up one-third of all national health-care spending, or $759 billion, roughly equivalent to the entire GDP of the Netherlands. In the long term an aging population will produce more invalids and thus more business. In 2014 the "Obamacare" health reforms will bring 32m newly insured patients. The less good news is that the health reforms also bring new regulations and intense pressure to contain costs. This is strengthening the argument for consolidation among hospital operators.
   Mergers are nothing new in the industry. In 1979 only 31% of America’s hospitals were part of a larger hospital system. By 2001 more than half were. The rationale for joining a larger chain is simple. It means better access to capital for renovation and expansion, better management and—most important—more power when negotiating treatment prices with health insurers.
   Now, the health reforms are piling on the pressure to merge. Obamacare requires hospitals to invest heavily in technology, even as the government cuts payments for treatments. Hospitals will increasingly have to demonstrate the quality of their services. Small hospitals may struggle to meet such demands; bigger groups will be better equipped. Besides, now is a good time to be doing deals, says Gary Lieberman of Wells Fargo. Credit markets have offered favorable terms to hospital groups raising money. And thanks to the downturn there has been ample supply of not-for-profit hospitals for sale. Community’s bid for Tenet is the biggest deal now in the works.
   Big hospital operators must still cope with Obamacare’s new requirements. And in some cases, growing larger brings its own challenges. Nonetheless, the hospital-merger wave still has far to go. HCA, despite being the industry’s leader, controls less than 5% of the market. There are many more deals to come, the only question is how quickly.
   
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
选项 A、Obamacare health reforms increase the payments for treatments gradually.
B、The hospital companies will emphasize more on investment in technology.
C、Neither technology nor quality of services is critical to hospitals in the U.S.
D、The economic depression leads to a decrease of hospital selling.
答案B
解析 细节题。B项“医疗公司将更加重视技术投资”与原文第四段第二句话有相关性，奥巴马医疗改革要求技术方面投入大量资金。故B项为正确答案。
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