Provider consolidation into vertically integrated health systems increased from 2016 to 2018. More than half of US physicians and 72 percent of hospitals were affiliated with one of 637 health systems in 2018. For-profit and church-operated systems had the largest increases in system size, driven in part by a large number of system mergers and acquisitions.
Keywords: Acute care hospitals; Consolidation; For profit status; Health are providers; Health policy; Health services; Hospital mergers; Markets; Nonprofit status; Primary care; Safety net hospitals; Systems of care; Vertical integration.