PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Over the past few decades, just about every industry in America has been impacted by mergers and acquisitions. It has been happening in healthcare as well.
Small community hospitals have joined larger hospitals in the same communities with the thought they can do more if they work together. At this point, most large cities have a handful of area health systems where there were once dozens of hospitals.
According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the next step is cross-market mergers. These mergers involve hospital systems from two or more states getting together to make super-systems.
The latest is a $27 billion merger between Iowa's and New Mexico's health systems. It remains to be seen if these mergers will improve care, but it is happening rapidly.
Get more medical reports from Dr. Brian McDonough.
KYW Newsradio's Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
