CommonSpirit’s answer to losing money: get bigger

CommonSpirit Health keeps adding more hospitals — and billions in new debt — even as it bleeds money.

Formed through a 2019 merger and headquartered in Chicago, CommonSpirit is one of the country’s largest not-for-profit health systems, with north of 140 hospitals. Even though it has scale, the system has lost money almost every year since its inception, including $2.7 billion on operations in the past two years. CommonSpirit’s latest financial statement also shows its total debt grew $2.9 billion in the year that ended June 30.

“They are not doing well, despite this mega-merger, but they’re doubling down,” said Ge Bai, an accounting and health policy professor at Johns Hopkins University. “They keep trying to merge.”

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