Two large health care systems in the midwest and upper great plains are planning to merge. Friday South Dakota-based Sanford Health and UnityPoint Health based in Iowa made the announcement.
If the merger is approved by regulators, it could take effect by the end of the year.
UnityPoint now operates 32 hospitals and has relationships with 280 physician clinics throughout Iowa, western Illinois and southern Wisconsin. They include hospitals in Rock Island, Moline, Bettendorf, Muscatine, Dubuque, Peoria, Anamosa, and Carthage, Illinois.
Sanford Health includes 44 hospitals, 1,400 physicians and more than 200 Good Samaritan Society senior care locations in 26 states and nine countries.
The combined company would rank among the top 15 largest non-profit health systems in the country.
