Industry Voices—Mergers aren’t the prescription to health systems’ revenue fears

Ever since the Affordable Care Act became law, hospital executives have worried about maintaining revenues in the face of government cutbacks to Medicare and Medicaid payments.

Declining reimbursement rates from private insurance payers and a steady drop in hospital utilization have added to their worries.

These threats to revenues, as costs continue to climb, have led dozens of hospitals to leap into each other’s arms, hoping they can merge away their problems through deals that...