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With 17 announced transactions, the fourth quarter of 2022 was one of the most active quarters we have seen since the COVID-19 pandemic began near the end of Q1 2020. Four of the 17...

The healthcare marketplace continues to evolve, posing new challenges and creating new opportunities. So too do the affiliation models and affiliation partners that will best meet current and future needs.

In a roundtable discussion, Kaufman Hall Managing Directors Matthew Bates and Nora Kelly and Senior Vice President Max Timm discuss the rise of risk-based contracting in value-based healthcare arrangements, what providers and insurers need to watch out for, and what success in risk-based contracting will look like.

Hospital and health system leaders show growing interest in a range of affiliation structures and contractual opportunities that stop short of full integration.

With 10 announced hospital and health system transactions, Q3 2022 numbers were slightly below the activity levels seen in Q1 and Q2. They reflect the recent trend of activity running below historical, pre-pandemic levels.

The pandemic has both accelerated and intensified the pressures hospitals and health systems face. Organizations that focus on “no regrets” decision-making will help ensure their viability in the short term and their options in the long term.

We saw a full return in Q2 2022 to the pandemic-era trend of fewer but larger hospital and health system transactions. Several large transactions boosted the average smaller party size to a record-setting $1.5 billion.

Healthcare is undergoing a major realignment as stakeholders compete for consumers’ attention. The different strategies intersect at the physician’s office, and physicians today face an unprecedented array of practice options.

Health system M&A activity was down in the first quarter of 2022, with both a smaller number of deals and a smaller average transaction size. A high percentage of deals involved for-profit sellers.

Hospitals and health systems are feeling the full effects of the Great Resignation as labor expenses climb despite lower staffing levels. As a result, hospitals are paying higher wages to compete for qualified personnel. Read the Winter 2022 Kaufman Hall Report for strategies for improving recruitment and retention.

The number of hospital and health system M&A transactions was down in 2021, but the size of transactions was up significantly, with the largest percentage of announced “mega merger” transactions in the last six years.

Partnerships, affiliations, mergers, and acquisitions have been—and will continue to be—an essential tool for hospitals and health systems as they have worked to build integrated health systems that can respond and adapt to a rapidly changing healthcare landscape.