Explore Kaufman Hall’s Gist Weekly for May 8, 2026, featuring expert insights on healthcare policy, hospital strategy, AI, M&A activity, workforce trends, and the latest industry developments.

Hospital and health system M&A activity continued with momentum in the first quarter of 2026, with 22 hospital and health system transactions announced—the highest first-quarter activity since 2020, according to the Kaufman Hall Mergers and Acquisitions Q1 Report.

This week’s Gist Weekly covers key healthcare industry developments including hospital financial performance trends, emerging care delivery strategies, and notable policy and regulatory updates shaping providers, payers, and the broader healthcare landscape.

Explore Kaufman Hall’s Q1 2026 M&A report highlighting renewed hospital and health system deal activity, key trends, and how financial pressures, market uncertainty, and strategic partnerships are shaping healthcare consolidation.

Explore how non-acute partnerships can drive strategic growth, improve care delivery, and create value beyond traditional scale in today’s evolving healthcare landscape.

Learn why healthcare strategic partnerships falter and how to improve outcomes with credible business cases, aligned incentives, durable structures, rigorous due diligence, and simpler, effective agreements from real-world deal insights.

This week’s graphic highlights data from Kaufman Hall’s recently published 2025 Hospital and Health System M&A in Review on the dynamics in health system merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.

Explore how hospitals and health systems are navigating persistent financial headwinds through strategic mergers, partnerships and realignment. The 2025 M&A Review, offers expert insights on evolving deal structures, capital constraints and the growing role of scale and specialization.

This year’s most popular insight illustrated in infographic form.

What a year for AI, federal policy and health plans