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As North Carolina hospitals jockey for position in an increasingly competitive health care market, Duke Health is hoping to make another big move into Charlotte. (Crouch, 10/15)

Rush University System for Health, a longtime holdout in Chicago’s consolidating healthcare scene, plans to merge with suburban giant Endeavor Health in a deal that would create the region’s largest health system by sheer number of facilities, with a $1 billion fund for community health, clinical advances and academic medicine and research. The deal gives Rush, which has a flagship hospital in the Illinois Medical District and two community hospitals, a footprint that spans the entire metro area. (Asplund, 10/14)

Nonprofit health systems MultiCare and Samaritan Health Services will merge on Nov. 1 after gaining approval from state regulators, the companies announced Monday. As part of the deal, MultiCare – which operates 13 hospitals –  will begin an affiliation with Samaritan and its network of five hospitals. MultiCare, which is based in Tacoma, Washington, will also invest $700 million over 10 years into Oregon-based Samaritan. Samaritan will continue to use its name, alongside MultiCare’s branding, the health system said. (Halleman, 10/14)

Zocdoc, a virtual marketplace for booking providers, has acquired insurance technology company Sohar Health. The deal marks Zocdoc’s first acquisition since launching in 2007, according to a Wednesday press release. Zocdoc declined to disclose the financial terms of the acquisition, which closed on Oct. 2. Sohar’s platform automates insurance benefits eligibility checks. (Famakinwa, 10/14)

An ongoing procession of large-scale health system dealmaking continued through the third quarter and is becoming the dominant merger and acquisition trend for 2026, according to a recent report. Per healthcare advisory firm Kaufman Hall, which is part of Vizient, the year’s third quarter hosted 16 newly announced hospital transactions, comprising $8.2 billion in total transacted revenue. Both are roughly in line with recent years and remain higher than pre-pandemic historical averages, the firm wrote. (Muoio, 10/14)

The legacy of the Black Panther Party lives on six decades after its founding, in the work of a Seattle medical center started to address systemic health disparities in the African American community, particularly among Black children. Originally known as the Sidney Miller Free Medical Clinic in 1969, it put into practice the national Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program to uplift African Americans as the Black Power movement gained momentum. Now, as the Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, it, along with the affiliated Country Doctor Community Clinic, sees tens of thousands of patients in a year. (Williams, 10/15)

A Connecticut Department of Correction doctor repeatedly engaged in behavior that compromised patient care, according to an investigation released on Wednesday by the Correction Ombuds’ office. (Golvala, 10/14)

As health systems focus more on clinical integration and physician alignment, they’re concentrating more resources on the positions key to those goals — including the leaders of their subsidiary medical groups. On average, the CEOs of medical groups saw year-over-year compensation rise more quickly than many other health system executive roles, according to data from consulting firm SullivanCotter. (Broderick, 10/14)

A sizeable proportion of patients reported disrespectful or judgmental language in their medical records, a nationally weighted survey showed. More than one in six adults (17.1%) reported such language in their own medical records or in those of a loved one, Natasha Steele, MD, MPH, of Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues wrote in JAMA Network Open. (Fiore, 10/14)

51ÊÓƵ Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘51ÊÓƵ Health News Minute’ 

Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: If patients can’t afford their bills, hospitals are typically supposed to offer financial aid — but you might have to ask. Plus, as the number of nursing home beds declines, older Americans are seeking alternatives. (10/15)