AHA Stat Blog: Hospital mergers promote value and quality

The drive to build a continuum of care that rewards value over volume is unlikely to abate because it’s what consumers demand, AHA General Counsel Melinda Reid Hatton writes in an AHA Stat blog post today, responding to a commentary on consolidation published in The JAMA Forum. “Building that continuum of care requires that hospitals, physicians and other caregivers work more closely together than ever to control costs and increase quality,” she notes. “Rather than diminishing those goals, newer more reliable data show that hospital mergers reduce costs and preserve quality.”