What's the deal with hospital mergers?

<p>This week, Microsoft announced a $19-billion deal to <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/2021/04/12/microsoft-accelerates-industry-cloud-strategy-for-healthcare-with-the-acquisition-of-nuance/">acquire Nuance Communications</a>, a health tech firm. It's one of the many recent merger and acquisition deals in the health care space.</p><p>On today's episode of <em>Health Affairs This Week, </em>Jeff Byers puts on his ex-reporter hat and joins Jessica Bylander to discuss the Nuance-Microsoft deal and review a recent Kaufman Hall report that found <a href="https://www.kaufmanhall.com/ideas-resources/research-report/2020-mergers-acquisitions-review-covid-19-catalyst-transformation">hospital merger deals were down in 2020, but still highly valued</a>.</p><p>Listen to Jeff and Jessica talk about hospital merger and acquisition trends and what it all means for the future of hospitals.</p><p><strong>Related Links:</strong></p><ul> <li> <a href="https://www.kaufmanhall.com/ideas-resources/research-report/2020-mergers-acquisitions-review-covid-19-catalyst-transformation">2020 M&amp;A In Review: COVID-19 As Catalyst For Transformation</a> (Kaufman Hall)</li> <li> <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05424">Hospital Prices Grew Substantially Faster Than Physician Prices For Hospital-Based Care in 2007-14</a> (<em>Health Affairs</em>)</li> <li> <a href="https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/what-we-know-about-provider-consolidation/">What We Know About Provider Consolidation</a> (Kaiser Family Foundation)</li> <li> <a href="https://rockhealth.com/reports/2020-market-insights-report-chasing-a-new-equilibrium">2020 Market Insights Report: Chasing A New Equilibrium</a> (Rock Health)</li> <li> <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00017">Consolidation of Providers Into Health Systems Increased Substantially, 2016-18</a> (<em>Health Affairs</em>)</li> <li> <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20210408.980640/full/">Reversing Hospital Consol