Indianapolis-based St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers and Indiana Heart Physicians, a 23-physician cardiology practices, will merge, effective Aug. 1, according to a report in the Indianapolis Business Journal.
St. Francis will buy out the physician practice, bringing the practice's patients to the St. Francis system.
Other Indiana health systems, including Clarian Health and Community Health Network, are acquiring or looking to acquire specialty physician practices, according to the report.
Medicare has proposed fee schedule cuts for specialist physicians in 2010, which may be an impetus for the mergers, according to the report.
Read the Indianapolis Business Journal's report on the St. Francis/Indiana Heart Physicians merger.