1.)In the text book it stated that “Mergers and acquisitions in the health care delivery system have resulted in larger companies within the industry.” (Estes& Harrington,2008). Health care is a very competitive industry and in this industry organizations are always looking for ways to improve. Smaller organizations may tend to merge with larger organizations. For the small businesses it could be a positive turn for them. The mergers and acquisitions that have occurred since President Clinton has declined and then it came back up and became powerful. The reason why they were so powerful is because the organizations have decided to merge with other organizations. The stakeholder that are being affected are the patients. They are at risk because they would receive low quality care and then the cost of the health care will go up where they will not be able to afford it at all.

2.)Since the National Healthcare Policy in 1994, mergers and acquisitions in the health care delivery system has created larger companies by smaller companies joining together.  Merging may benefit these large corporations in their increase of generating more revenue and facilitating for expansion. Stakeholders who are affected by a merger are nurses and healthcare workers because the company may chose to downsize its staff.  Also local communities lose power in the health industry affecting consumers/patients accessing smaller local health organizations.  Local hospitals may have a negative impact financially trying to compete with larger hospitals that offer specialty medical services.   This tends to cause an increase in medical services for patients being treated at local hospitals (Harrington, & Estes, 2008).

3.) In your judgment, are there any positives associated with mergers/acquisitions from the standpoint of stakeholders such as consumers and the community?