Breaking: Globe Reports Lahey-Beth Israel Merger Talks

The Boston Globe reports here:

The Lahey Clinic and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, two respected academic medical centers, are the latest Massachusetts hospitals to open merger discussions.

Dr. Howard Grant, president of Lahey in Burlington, recently proposed that the two institutions join forces — though both sides said the discussions are preliminary.

Now for some grains of salt:

Grant's vision, according to a hospital source, is to form a parent corporation with its own chief executive to oversee a fully integrated health care system that includes the two teaching hospitals as well as a half-dozen community hospitals.

Hartman downplayed the proposal, saying that Grant is "talking to everybody. Dr. Grant has talked to almost every single teaching hospital in the state and talked to the majority of hospitals in our service area."

Beth Israel Deaconess spokesman Jerry Berger echoed those remarks. "We talk to lots of people about lots of things in this economy and climate and with the changes in health care," he said.