The Business of Health Care And Mergers In Arizona
The business of health care. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act has many providers and physicians wondering about what is to come, and both for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals and health care systems are exploring mergers. Earlier this year, Scottsdale Healthcare and John C. Lincoln Health Network announced they would pursue an affiliation, not calling that dalliance an official merger. The Valley's St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center is actually run by San Francisco-based Dignity Health.
Last month, it was announced that Vanguard Health Systems, which operates Abrazo Health Care in Arizona, would be bought by Tenet Health Systems of Dallas for nearly $2 billion.
Paul Levy and Eugene Schneller talked about the practical reasons for mergers and their possible effect on patients and consumers.
Levy is the former president and CEO of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. You can read his observations of running a hospital on his blog. He is also the author of the 2013 book "How a Blog Held Off the Most Powerful Union in America."
Schneller, is co-director of the Health Sector Supply Chain Research Consortium at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
