Rush Health Systems, a seven-hospital system in Meridian, Miss., signed an agreement to join New Orleans-based Ochsner Health.

Two Michigan health systems — Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health — have signed a letter of intent to create a new 22-hospital health system.

Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare will sell five hospitals in Florida to Dallas-based Steward Health Care for $1.1 billion, the organizations said June 16. 

Nevada will get its first fully integrated health system after the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine and Renown Health in Reno got approval to affiliate.

Financial pressures exacerbated by the pandemic will likely lead to more consolidation in the healthcare industry, a trend policymakers must pay closer attention to, as it threatens to make healthcare even more expensive, Bloomberg's editorial board wrote in an opinion article June 16. 

Northfield, Ill.-based Medline has recorded growth every year since it was founded in 1966 by Jim and Jon Mills and is now one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of healthcare supplies worldwide.

Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare has a growth strategy in New Jersey that is centered on signing contracts with medical clinics as opposed to acquiring hospitals, according to NJ.com.

Cano Health, a primary care provider for seniors and underserved communities, acquired Miami-based University Health Care for $600 million, the organization said June 14. 

Six transactions involving hospitals and health systems have been announced, finalized or advanced since May 10:

Monongahela Valley Hospital, a 200-bed facility in Wickerham Manor-Fisher, Pa., signed a definitive agreement to join DuBois, Pa.-based Penn Highlands Healthcare.

Randolph Health, a bankrupt single-hospital system based in Asheboro, N.C., received verbal approval from the North Carolina attorney general to join Roanoke, Va.-based American Healthcare System, according to the Triad Business Journal. 

As we move into the second half of 2021, we have much more clarity on where healthcare transactions and physician alignment models are headed.

Tennessee should review HCA Healthcare's proposed purchase of Springfield, Tenn.-based NorthCrest Health, labor and union groups wrote in a letter to state Attorney General Herbert Slatery.

Below are eight hospital mergers called off since late May 2020, beginning with the most recent:

Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare and Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health have abandoned plans to merge into an $11.5 billion system, the organizations said in a joint statement June 2. 

Rhode Island regulators conditionally approved the sale of two privately owned hospitals in the state, ending an impasse that threatened to close the two facilities, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health sold its consulting and outsourced services division to an affiliate of Grant Avenue Capital, a healthcare-focused private equity firm. 

Providers in North Carolina have raised concerns about a proposed merger between Sentara Healthcare and Cone Health in public comment shared with the state's Department of Justice.

Tenet Health Central Coast inked a neurosurgery affiliation agreement with the University of California San Francisco and UCSF Health.

Lake Health officially joined University Hospitals April 16 through membership substitution, and integration initiatives are in full swing more than a month later to benefit patients and community members.