Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Md., and Doctors Community Health System, a single-hospital system based in Lanham, Md., have announced merger plans.

Louisville-based KentuckyOne Health may be nearing a sale of Jewish Hospital after about two years.

Premier, a Charlotte, N.C.-based healthcare improvement company, will exit the complex specialty pharmacy business.

Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth and Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Health are in talks to expand services at AdventHealth's hospital in Hendersonville, N.C.

Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System and La Crosse, Wis.-based Gundersen Health System are exploring a merger that would create a 13-hospital rural healthcare network, the organizations said May 7.

Maywood, Ill.-based Loyola Medicine and Palos Health in Palos Heights, Ill., have called off merger discussions after signing a nonbinding letter of intent in January.

Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health signed a letter of intent to merge with Ireland's largest private healthcare provider, Bon Secours Health System in Dublin.

Over the past 20 years, private equity involvement in healthcare has steadily grown and private equity investors now play an extremely important role in the healthcare ecosystem. 

Healthcare deals in the first quarter of this year were 16.1 percent higher than the $26.1 billion quarterly average recorded from 2014-18, according to PwC.

Providence, R.I.-based Lifespan has launched a public campaign opposing Partners HealthCare's proposed acquisition of Care New England Health System, a deal that has been in the works for two years.

Pensacola, Fla.-based Emergency Care Partners, a regional provider of emergency medicine and outsourced emergency department management services, is merging with Gonzales, La.-based Ascension Emergency Physicians.

Mergers and acquisitions for hospitals and health systems were down year over year in the first quarter of 2019, but activity was generally consistent with levels seen in recent years, according to the latest analysis by Kaufman Hall, a provider of enterprise performance management software and data and management consulting services.

Greenberg Advisors, a Rockville, Md.-based mergers and acquisitions adviser to the healthcare industry, celebrated its 10-year anniversary in March.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Ernest Robles has given the OK for Santa Ana Calif.-based KPC Group to acquire four hospitals from nonprofit hospital chain Verity Health, KPC Group announced.

In the1990s, healthcare systems merged at unsustainable rates. Today, with dropping inpatient volumes, systems are exploring multiple ways to stay relevant, such as entering the outpatient space, rethinking partnerships and expanding access to care through technology.

In the first quarter of 2019, the quarterly volume of announced acute care hospital merger and acquisition activity reached its lowest point since the fourth quarter of 2009, according to an analysis by Ponder & Co.

Ripley, W. Va.-based Jackson General Hospital is set to be the fifth hospital to join the West Virginia University Health System in two years, according to WVMetroNews.com.

The total number of healthcare mergers and acquisitions hit a record high in 2018, and several deals have closed so far this year. 

Fort Bragg, Calif.-based Mendocino Coast District Hospital's board of directors will seek a potential lease or sale, the hospital's interim CEO said April 11, according to the Fort Bragg Advocate-News.

Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health has completed the sale of Scenic Mountain Medical Center, a 146-bed hospital in Big Spring, Texas, to Dallas-based Steward Health Care.