First few Article Sentences
$1,000,000,000 is the new normal. The scale of new development projects and mergers in the national healthcare and biotech world is grand, with billion dollar figures becoming commonplace and with possible repercussions in the Puget Sound region. This is despite worries about changes to the ACA including the recent removal of the individual mandate. In Modern Healthcare's 12/9/17 article on the CHI Dignity "mega-merger," authors Alex Kacik and Tara Bannow report that "Hospitals and health systems have been consolidating at a rapid clip in both horizontal and vertical mergers. While hospital executives claim that scale is needed to lower costs, researchers point to the contrary and say consolidation often produces higher prices and insurance premiums."