When the merger is finalized on Feb. 1, 2020, the hospital will be renamed OSF HealthCare Little Company of Mary Medical Center, the two health systems said in a joint media release.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
"A focused discernment went into the decision to rename our facility," said L.C.M Board Chair Sister Sharon Ann Walsh.
"As our two congregations came together and discussed ways to reflect our new partnership, it was important to both communities that we found a name that would preserve our strong heritage," she said.
The two health systems will spend the next several months clearing regulatory and canonical hurdles before the merger is finalized.
Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers includes the 252-bed acute care hospital, and 12 other healthcare venues in Chicago and its southwest suburbs, and employs 2,100 people.
Peoria-based OSF HealthCare, an integrated health system owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. The health system operates in Illinois and Michigan, employs 21,000 people, and includes nine acute care hospitals, four critical access hospitals, two colleges of nursing, and a physician network that employs more than 1,200 primary care and specialist physicians.
The updated analysis comes as a federal appeals court weighs the future of the Affordable Care Act.
Almost 54 million people – or 27% of all adults under 65 —have pre-existing conditions that would have made them uninsurable in the individual markets that existed in most states before the Affordable Care Act, an updated analysis by Kaiser Family Foundation shows.
The rate of declinable pre-existing conditions among adults varies significantly from state to state, ranging from 37% in West Virginia, to 22% in Colorado, the analysis shows.
Forty-four percent of adults ages 55-64 were more likely to have pre-existing conditions, more than double the rate of adults ages 18-34 (18%). Women (30%) are more likely than men (24%) to have declinable conditions, and 45% of non-elderly families have at least one adult with a pre-existing condition.
The updated analysis comes as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals considers Texas v. Azar, a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, including provisions that protect people from coverage denials for pre-existing conditions.
"While we cannot predict how the court would fashion relief if these ACA provisions were overturned, access to individual market insurance for people with pre-existing conditions could be seriously reduced," the analysis said.
The analysis used 2018 data from two large government surveys to estimate the number of nonelderly adults in each state with a health condition that could lead to a denial of coverage in the individual insurance market, based on pre-ACA field underwriting guides for brokers and agents, KFF said.
The estimates do not include people with other health conditions that would not necessarily cause a denial, but could lead to higher insurance costs based on underwriting, KFF said.
The order aligns with the president's promise to 'protect what works' and 'fix what's broken,' says the HHS secretary.
President Donald Trump delivered a speech and signed an executive order Thursday to build more choice and competition into the Medicare program, with principles that his administration has already advanced through Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.
The order criticizes so-called "Medicare-for-All" proposals and directs Health and Human Services to propose a regulation regarding MA plans instead within one year, which places a deadline about a month before the 2020 general election.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement that the order aligns with the president's promise to "protect what works" and "fix what's broken."
"America's seniors are overwhelmingly satisfied with the care they receive through traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage, and the President is continuing to take action to strengthen and improve these programs," Azar said. "The President has directed HHS to take a number of specific, significant steps that will meaningfully improve the financing of Medicare, advance the care American seniors receive from their doctors, and improve the health they enjoy."
"The steps include expanding options and providing savings for seniors on Medicare Advantage; eliminating unnecessary burdens on providers; focusing Medicare payments on time spent with patients rather than on procedures performed; accelerating access to the latest medical technologies; cutting waste, fraud, and abuse; and expanding freedom and control for seniors on Medicare," he said. "All of these steps together will help create a healthcare system that puts patients at the center."
"These kinds of improvements, rather than a total government takeover of the healthcare system, are the path to our ultimate goal: better health for all Americans," he added. That's the President's promise, and that's what he has been delivering for American patients."
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement that she is proud of the Trump administration's agenda and her agency is ready to act.
"We look forward to swiftly implementing these bold and comprehensive policies, which build on the steps we have already taken, to increase choices, encourage medical innovation, empower patients, and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse to protect seniors and taxpayers," Verma said.
