HFMA Panel: Pressures for Hospitals to Merge Are Relentless

Hospitals throughout the country face constant and persistent pressure to merge, according to a panel discussion of four executives at the Health Financial Management Association's annual national institute in Orlando, Fla., last week.

"We are chum for the big systems," observed James Doyle, chief financial officer for Elmhurst (Ill.) Memorial Healthcare, a two-hospital system. That larger hospital systems tend to do better in mergers may bear that observation out.

Tightening market shares also are making providers more adversarial. Although Michael Allen, treasurer for the Winona (Minn.) Health System noted the default behavior has been "Minnesota Nice," market pressures--driven in part by mergers--have been changing that dynamic. "The pie is starting to shrink, and table manners are starting to get worse," he said.