After the Handshake: Physician Integration in Academic Medical Center Mergers
Healthcare attorneys Becca Waltuch and Nili Yolin co-authored an article for the American Health Law Association's (AHLA) Health Law Connections magazine about the post-closing process for academic medical center (AMC) merger transactions involving community hospitals. As the authors describe it, after a merger closes, it's only just begun; post-closing entails aligning physician and clinical priorities along with establishing governance and infrastructure to support long-term success, and due diligence concerns raised during negotiation do not dissipate simply because the ink has dried. Their article focuses on physician integration and details three main action areas: governance, credentialing, and system revenue and compensation.
On governance, they go into reconciling legacy systems and practice plans to finalize who makes operational decisions and how and whose bylaws and rules remain. For credentialing, they highlight licensure standards, peer review protections, payer enrollment and residency programs, as well as other regulatory and accreditation frameworks specific to community hospitals. Finally, they identify three main funding streams – overhead and shared services, mission support for primary care or hospital outreach, and academic activities – that require special attention, in addition to fair market value questions for physician pay and consolidating compensation methodologies. The article provides a helpful overview of the many considerations that arise post-closing for AMC-community hospital mergers, offering readers an integrated look at what should factor into physician integration and what to prioritize to ensure a smooth process that achieves the clinical and financial goals driving the deal from the outset.
READ: After the Handshake: Physician Integration in Academic Medical Center Mergers (Subscription required)