January 17, 2023 – According to a report from Chief Healthcare Executive, analysts are expecting to see more hospital mergers and acquisitions in 2023 after a surge in the last few months of 2022.
Kaufman Hall found that “a third of the year’s hospital mergers and acquisitions (17) came in the last quarter of 2022.” The size of these transactions is an indicating factor for analysts that hospitals and health systems are opting for strategy by considering partnerships to better prepare for the future.
The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have left hospitals facing steep economic challenges, showing hospital leadership how their operations may need to adjust to a new environment. Some deals are driven less by financial hardship and more by the need for hospitals to find a partner with different strengths that will allow them to provide more methods of healthcare.
Anu Singh told CHE, “We have consumerism, we have telehealth, we have systemic issues around health and maintaining health. We have payer-provider opportunities, or threats around reimbursement. So those things are all back, and now we have to deal with them. And I think that’s going to open up more strategic discussions, and as a result, new or renewed pathways to partnership models.”