Hospitals are just emerging from several years of post-pandemic planning and correction, when sustainability was the overriding issue. Now consolidation has driven up costs—largely by improving health systems’ negotiating power. Indeed, most studies show that after mergers, whether vertical, horizontal, regional, or national, the costs are higher. New federal budget proposals on the table are […]
Size is Now a Problem That Large Hospitals and Health Systems Must Solve
For two decades, consolidation in health care has been a strong industry trend. Championed by hospitals and hospital-organized systems, care is now less independent and more centralized, especially in urban settings. Widespread acquisitions of physician practices and towers of specialty services, diagnostics, and treatment seem to have forever changed the health care landscape. But in […]