David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, president of The Commonwealth Fund, discusses the role of mergers and acquisitions in delivering affordable, high-quality care.

Transcript

What role do you think mergers and acquisitions will play in healthcare in regard to delivering high-quality care at an affordable price?

There are some mergers and acquisitions that may be useful. I’m thinking of getting to the point where payers and providers work more closely together and one theoretical way of getting there would be to have a payer and provider merge and that has happened. Some most recently, the UnitedHealth Group and the DaVita Medical Groups have come together. I don’t see that as the future because I think it’s really hard to make those successful if they are not growing up organically as for example, Intermountain has or Geisinger has or Henry Ford over a long period of time where physicians have taken risks and grown and developed a plan that they have nurtured and believe in themselves.

I think mergers and acquisitions are an interesting new development, they show that the private sector are taking health care and it’s costs seriously and that’s great but I think they are a very difficult way to make the future better.