Circling the wagons in Rhode Island: I'm quoted in the Boston Globe

Looks like Rhode Island would rather create a health system monopoly than allow in a competitor from Big Bad Massachusetts. Partners HealthCare has been trying to acquire the second largest hospital system in RI, but now the governor has pulled together the three biggest systems to see if they can come together instead.Partners is staging a tactical retreat (see Partners pulls out of talks for Rhode Island health system) in the Boston Globe.Thankfully, I am not privy to the details of how things operate in Rhode Island and I don't know how hard these three systems' heads are being banged together to get them to team up. But my guess is there's a good chance the parties will fail to coalesce and that Partners will be back.Here's what I told the Globe:

“It was clear that some of the powers that be in Rhode Island want to maintain a Rhode Island-dominated health care system,” said David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group, a Boston consulting firm.

“I don’t think it’s actually going to solve any of their economic problems,” Williams said, “and I think it’s reasonably likely that Partners will be back at the table in three to six months after Rhode Island determines that going it alone is not viable.”

—By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.