June 14, 2011 | 4:10 PM |

Merger Fever: Winchester, Hallmark Consider Joint Venture

FILED UNDER: Money, community hospitals

WBUR’s Martha Bebinger reports that two community hospital networks north of Boston are the latest to begin talks about a merger or affiliation.

Winchester Hospital and Hallmark Health, which includes Lawrence Memorial and Melrose-Wakefield hospitals are in discussions about a possible joint future. Hallmark Health spokesman Rick Pozniak says hospitals would need to form larger networks if the state requires managing health care payments on a budget.

“Hospitals are trying to determine the best way of meeting those payment expectations and in some cases, collaboration, partnerships, affiliations is a road that many have considered and some are even implementing today,” he said.

Pozniak says talks began a few weeks ago and there’s no timeline for a decision.

About the author

Blogger, CommonHealth Rachel Zimmerman worked as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal for 10 years, most recently covering health and medicine out of the paper’s Boston bureau. Rachel has also written for The New York Times, the (now-defunct) Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the alternative newspaper Willamette Week, in Portland, Ore., among other publications. Rachel co-wrote a book about birth, published by Bantam/Random House, and spent 2008 as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. Rachel lives in Cambridge with her husband and two daughters. View all posts by Rachel Zimmerman →