Dive Brief:
- Princeton HealthCare System is entertaining the possibility of a new partnership or merger.
- As of now, the health system has not named any specific potential partners.
- This is the latest in a flurry of healthcare system mergers, partnerships and acquisitions designed to help organizations meet evolving needs in a post-ACA world.
Dive Insight:
New Jersey in particular has been an active market recently—recent big mergers in the state could rival the scale of NYC health systems to the point of reducing patient-referrals to New York hospitals. Princeton probably didn't have a choice but to look to partnerships to compete with the soon-to-be-goliath of Hackensack University Health Network and Meridian Health—still under state and federal review—which will create an 11-hospital system with 25,000 employees and 6,000 doctors.
"Recognizing that there will be significant changes in reimbursement, care delivery and coordination, information and clinical technology and other areas over the next two to five years, we are engaged in a thorough and thoughtful strategic planning process to determine how we can best remain a leading provider of healthcare services," a spokesperson for Princeton HealthCare said in a statement.