Earlier this month, Atrium Health announced plans to merge with a major hospital system based in the Midwest, Advocate Aurora Health.
If approved, the headquarters would be in Charlotte, and it would create the fifth-largest hospital system in the U.S. The combined systems would serve 5.5 million patients in total and employ almost 150,000 people. Annual revenue is expected to be more than $27 billion.
Atrium says the merger will allow it to provide better care and more investment in communities, but some critics say it could raise prices for patients and lower wages for doctors, nurses and other staff.
Federal regulators still need to approve the merger, and the process could take months, if not longer.
We discuss Atrium Health’s latest merger, from patient care to the cost of procedures and the impact of “strategic combinations” on Charlotte.
GUESTS
Paul Keckley, health care policy analyst and managing editor of The Keckley Report
Barak Richman, professor of law and business administration at Duke Law School
Dale Owen, CEO of Tryon Medical Partners
