Wisconsin Hospitals Are Increasingly Banding Together To Reduce Costs

In Wisconsin, and across the country, hospitals are increasingly joining forces through partnerships, strategic alliances and mergers.

Hospitals remain as competitive as ever with one another, but they’re also capitalizing on the advantages of being on the same team. Peter Pruessing is the CEO of Integrated Health Network, which is just one example of different hospital systems banding together in the state.

“I think we can compete and collaborate at the same time,” said Pruessing at a forum on Tuesday sponsored by Wisconsin Health News. “Other industries which are more mature than health care have been doing that for years.”

Damond Boatwright is the regional president of SSM Health Care, which has 19 hospitals in four midwestern states. He said that often the driving force is cutting expenses.

“A lot of hospitals are affiliating and merging and partnering with one another to try and find that ‘secret sauce’ to affordability,” said Boatwright.

Critics of hospital partnerships say they have the potential to decrease competition and pass on higher prices to consumers.