Marketplace’s Adriene Hill and Dan Gorenstein discuss how healthcare may change in 2015.

Hospital consolidations can mean a few things. On one hand, there will be potential for better convenience. Integrated medical records means you won’t have to fill out the same forms multiple times or take the same tests twice. Tom Main, a partner with Oliver Wyman’s Health and Life Sciences Practice, says “I think we’re sitting at this incredible opportunity for the more connected, way more accessible, way more personalized, way more real time.”

However, if there’s been a merger in your area, it’s easy to get lost in the system and you can expect higher prices. Since 1994, there have been 1,200 hospital mergers, and in certain markets, there have been 20 to 50% price increases. Carnegie Mellon economist Martin Gaynor says, “Actually those increases just get passed on to workers dollar for dollar so it actually comes home to roost directly on the backs of American workers.”

Gorenstein explains why some hospitals want to be bigger: “More and more hospitals and doctors are getting paid differently – they’re penalized for things like readmission, their requirements to have electronic health records. That stuff is expensive. Doing this stuff is new and it’s different. People are a little lost and that leaves people feeling anxious a bit, nervous a bit. Some people really believe the best way to weather this new era in healthcare is to be bigger. Bigger is better. They’ll have more money on hand and they’ll be able to do whatever they need to do to move. Others though, especially when it comes to the hospital mergers, believe the bigger they are, the more leverage they’ll have when negotiating with health insurers.”