University of Chicago Medical Center.

University of Chicago Medicine will make its first outright acquisition of a hospital, as it absorbs Ingalls Health, in the city’s southern suburbs. 

Based in an impoverished area, Ingalls  needed a partner to help get it   more lucrative contracts with insurers and to cut costs, as well as the size and cachet to recruit physicians to a poor community. The prestigious University of Chicago will give them cachet.

University of Chicago Medicine, for its part,  likes the deal because it will  help  it compete against south suburban hospitals as it  tries to expand its reach in the area.

While merger mania has spread in recent years, University of Chicago Medicine  has stayed away from  mergers. Instead, it has  favored joint ventures and expanding relationships with suburban hospitals to bring its specialists there.