MUNCIE, Ind. (WOWO): Indiana has a healthcare monopoly problem.

That’s according to a study done by Ball State University that says the state’s markets for healthcare services exhibit “broad signs” of monopolization.

In one example, Professor Mike Hicks points out that the price for average healthcare services in Fort Wayne is more than twice the price in the “least concentrated” markets.

“This lack of competition seems most acute not in rural places, but in metropolitan markets,” Hicks says. “For example, Ft. Wayne, South Bend, Evansville, and other relatively metropolitan places face more concentrated markets than do places that are more rural. One clear implication of this fact is that market power, not provider cost is a central factor in pricing differences.”

In the past 20 years, healthcare expenditures for Hoosiers have risen from $330-per-person beneath the national average to more than $819-per-person above the national average.

Read the full study here.