Beth Israel Deaconess (BID) and Lahey Health first publicly expressed their intention to merge in 2013, when they shared with employees that the two systems were in talks with each other and several physician groups, including
Atrius Health, to form an alliance that may see a formal merger between the hospital systems. While talks were off and on for years, the two systems repeatedly expressed their desire to merge, largely to compete with
Mass General Brigham (called Partners Healthcare at the time), which was a dominating force in the Massachusetts health care market. Talk about a merger became more serious in 2017, when BID and Lahey appeared to resolve a dispute over the leadership structure of the potential system which had halted talks in the past. As part of the agreement, BID's
CEO Kevin Tabb, MD would become the combined system's CEO, Lahey's board
chairwoman would become the combined system's chairwoman, and the system's
board as a whole would consist of an equal split of members from each system. Additionally, three small hospitals outside of either system joined the talks:
New England Baptist Hospital of Boston,
Mount Auburn Hospital of Cambridge, and Anna Jaques Hospital of
Newburyport. The final merger agreement was signed by the hospitals in July, 2017. State and federal regulators officially approved the deal in January 2018.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey placed requirements on the new health system, including that they cap price increases for their first seven years, make efforts to increase the number of
Medicaid patients they serve and ensure their doctors accept Medicaid, and that they spend $72 million over eight years to support health resources for low-income and
mental health patients, among other requirements. The system was required to pay for an independent firm to monitor their compliance with the AG's deal for 10 years. Following this deal, the newly formed health system was named Beth Israel Lahey Health. BILH's first big interstate expansion occurred in 2023, when the system acquired Exeter Hospital in
Exeter, New Hampshire. ==Services==