Despite years of patient complaints and quality-of-care concerns, Ballad Health — the nation’s largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly — will now be held to a lower standard by the Tennessee government, and state data that holds the monopoly accountable will be kept from the public for two years.
Ballad is the only option for hospital care for most of the approximately 1.1 million people in a 29-county swath of Appalachia. Such a monopoly would normally be prohibited by federal law. But under deals negotiated with Tennessee and Virginia years ago, the monopoly is permitted if both states affirm each year that it is an overall benefit to the public.
However, according to a newly renegotiated agreement between Ballad and Tennessee, the monopoly can now be considered a “clear and convincing” benefit to the public with performance that would earn a “D” on most A-to-F grading scales.
And the monopoly can be allowed to continue even with a score that most would consider an “F.”
“It’s an extreme disservice to the people of northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia,” said Dani Cook, who has organized protests against Ballad’s monopoly for years. “We shouldn’t have lowered the bar. We should be raising the bar.”
The Ballad monopoly, which encompasses 20 hospitals and straddles the border of Tennessee and Virginia, was created in 2018 after lawmakers in both states, in an effort to prevent hospital closures, waived federal antitrust laws so two rival health systems could merge. Although Ballad has largely succee …