Barnabas Health and Robert Wood Johnson Health System plan to combine their 11 hospitals to form New Jersey's largest health system by revenue. Along with another pending deal, the move would consolidate the majority of hospital care in central New Jersey into two health systems.
Barnabas, a seven-hospital system based in West Orange, and Robert Wood Johnson, a New Brunswick-based system with four hospitals, have signed an agreement that would create a system with combined annual operating revenue of $4.5 billion and 30,000 employees, the organizations said in a joint news release. Barnabas acquired Jersey City Medical Center in June 2014.
The New Jersey hospital market is undergoing a rush of consolidation as hospitals nationwide enter into merger and acquisition deals. The proposed RWJ-Barnabas system would have nearly one-third of the central region's market share, according to an analysis by insurance expert Allan Baumgarten.
The merger of Hackensack University Health Network and Wall Township-based Meridian Health, which reached a definitive agreement in May, would create a nine-hospital system with $3.1 billion in operating revenue, covering 26.3% of the central New Jersey market.
