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VA lawmakers look to expand controversial health system mergers to address rural health crisis

By WVTF.org  
   April 15, 2025

As healthcare gets more costly, and hospitals close in rural regions, states have moved to allow controversial, anti-competitive mergers of existing healthcare systems. Virginia is one of 18 states that allows such mergers, and a bipartisan effort that sailed through the 2025 session could see those mergers become more frequent. Virginia has a law that allows competing health systems to merge with the approval of the legislature. The only such system created in Virginia is Ballad Health, a network of 20 hospitals in the state's southwestern corner.

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