Is control of health system needed?

State lawmakers should back off efforts to control individual players in Utah's health care system, which enjoys a "vigorous rivalry" that benefits consumers, according to an independent report released Friday.

In a 94-page study of the state's insurance and hospital markets, as well as physician and other health-care services, analysts concluded that Utah offers competitive services in spite of the perceived market dominance of Intermountain Healthcare.

"In sum, health-care markets in Utah are serving the interests of consumers by forcing suppliers of health insurance and health-care provider services to offer the most attractive combinations of price and quality," states the report, commissioned by a legislative task force charged with evaluating the delivery of health care in Utah.

"This report recommends that the Utah Legislature refrain from intervention in Utah's health-care markets," the report continues. "Regulatory actions ostensibly intended to benefit consumers are likely to benefit particular providers or insurers to the detriment of competition and to the detriment of consumer welfare."

The Privately Owned Health Care Organization Task Force was born out of a 2005 legislative effort to first tax and later break up Intermountain Healthcare, Utah's largest health-care network.

Early task force meetings focused almost entirely on allegations that the nonprofit organization's business practices stifle competition by pricing others out of the system and leaving no room for non-IHC doctors.

Friday's report found otherwise, noting that IHC's vertically integrated system — ownership of hospitals, contracts with physician providers and the provision of its own health insurance — actually fosters competition.

"Rather than precluding entry, IHC's vertical integration stimulated a competitive response that is motivated to match the quality, access and price of IHC's system," the report states.

"What it seems to say is the people are well served in our state by Intermountain and others," Intermountain senior vice president Greg Poulsen said of the report by Economists Inc., based in Washington, D.C.

"I think that sometimes the strong competition in our area brings out areas of disagreement, and sometimes heated disagreement," he said. "But I think this helps us not lose sight of the fact that this competition also gives the state some very good health care."

Jennifer Cannaday, assistant vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs, had not yet had the opportunity to review the report in its entirety Friday.