Opinion: Hospital mergers in N.J. unite sagging health-care quality with rising costs - Health Professionals & Allied Employees

Opinion: Hospital mergers in N.J. unite sagging health-care quality with rising costs

From the Star-Ledger, September 29, 2015

It’s a small world in New Jersey health care and getting smaller every day. Eight proposed hospital mergers are currently awaiting approval. That brings the total to 18 completed and pending sales, mergers and partnerships in our state since 2010.

As a nurse, I’m very concerned about the impacts of this rampant consolidation of our local hospitals. It’s like a large snowball rolling downhill, collecting all our community health resources along the way….

New Jersey’s experience is part of an alarming nationwide trend in which competition in the health-care market is rapidly being eliminated. The pro-merger arguments are always the same: Only big hospital systems can survive in the Obamacare age. Bulk purchasing and administrative efficiencies will bring down costs. And coordination among providers will improve care.

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