After an almost year-long battle with state and federal regulators, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and PinnacleHealth System announced today that they have decided to abandon efforts to merge.
The hospitals’ decision follows a federal court ruling in late September that sided with the Federal Trade Commission’s opposition to the merger, reversing an earlier district court opinion that PinnacleHealth and Hershey Medical Center should be allowed to join.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office also had opposed the merger.
“We firmly believe the integration of our two health systems would have served the best interests of patients and the entire Central Pennsylvania community, but given the time and cost associated with continuing litigation, PinnacleHealth and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center have decided to bring our integration efforts to a close,” the Dauphin County health systems said today in a joint statement.
The health systems said they will still share a positive and collaborative working relationship, and will “continue to collaborate in the future.”
