Every healthcare merger includes an IT integration plan—at least in theory. But theory rarely survives contact with reality. Internal teams are already stretched thin, juggling legacy systems and frontline support. So when the merger hits, they’re handed a complex, high-stakes integration project without the tools, time, or experience to execute it efficiently. The result? Delays, security risks, and unrealized synergies. Many organizations hesitate to bring in outside support, worried about cost. But what they often fail to calculate is this: the cost of not bringing in experts is almost always higher.

⦁ Internal Teams Are Rarely Built for M&A Integration

Your in-house IT team may be skilled, but they are structured for maintenance and incremental improvement, not large-scale change. Most healthcare IT departments are already under pressure to support clinical operations, EHR performance, and day to-day user issues.
According to HIMSS, 68% of healthcare CIOs report that staffing shortages and skill gaps limit their ability to execute integration projects (HIMSS, 2023). This becomes critical in M&A scenarios, where the required capabilities often include:

• Active Directory (AD) forest collapse
• Identity and Access Management (IAM) strategy development
• Interoperability planning between clinical and administrative systems
• Security and compliance mapping across domains

Outsourced experts bring targeted experience and specialized tools that internal teams may lack, helping organizations avoid missteps that can derail integrations.

⦁ Delay Costs More Than an Outside Partner

M&A integration isn’t just an IT project—it’s a strategic countdown. Every month of delay in IT consolidation costs between $300,000 and $500,000 in unrealized value for healthcare organizations (KPMG, 2021).

Your TCO model should include:

• Duplication of licenses and infrastructure
• Delays in billing system consolidation and revenue capture
• Extended use of temporary access and security gaps
• Increased help desk burden and support staff fatigue

External partners help accelerate timelines by deploying proven frameworks, automation tools, and dedicated personnel shortening the integration window and unlocking savings faster.

Key stat: According to IDC, healthcare organizations that use external support for IT integration complete projects 35% faster than those relying solely on internal teams (IDC, 2023).

⦁ External Support De-Risks Security and Compliance

Healthcare is the most targeted industry for cyberattacks, and M&A transitions are particularly vulnerable. Why? Because fragmented identity systems, temporary access credentials, and inconsistent security policies create a perfect storm for exploitation.
IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report showed that the average healthcare breach now costs $10.93 million—more than double the cross-industry average (IBM Security, 2023).

External consultants focused on integration can:

• Align access policies across legacy systems
• Harden IAM infrastructure before migration
• Implement role-based access control and MFA uniformly
• Conduct pre- and post-integration security assessments

Ponemon Institute found that organizations with mature IAM programs experience 60% fewer identity-related incidents and reduce breach response costs by over $1 million (Ponemon, 2023). The right partner helps you get there faster—and more reliably.

⦁ Consultants Free Up Internal Teams to Focus on Continuity

Bringing in outside support doesn’t mean sidelining your team—it means preserving them for what only they can do.

In M&A, your internal staff is responsible for:

• Maintaining uptime for mission-critical systems
• Managing clinician access during sensitive transitions
• Supporting EHR performance and clinical workflows
• Ensuring compliance with ongoing audits and certifications

When those same people are tasked with integration projects, something has to give. That “something” often becomes patient-facing performance.

External support absorbs the integration workload—giving your internal team the bandwidth to protect operational continuity. According to Forrester Research, organizations that augment internal IT teams with integration specialists reduce unplanned downtime by 40% during M&A transitions (Forrester, 2022).

⦁ The Best External Support Comes With Tools, Frameworks, and Benchmarks

Good partners don’t just bring extra hands. They bring repeatable processes, toolsets, and insights drawn from prior engagements. They know what pitfalls to avoid. They know what compliance checkpoints are often missed. They can benchmark your progress against industry norms and help identify blind spots before they become audit findings or security incidents.

Look for external partners who offer:

• A tested integration playbook customized to healthcare
• Automation for identity provisioning and directory consolidation
• Built-in reporting for security, access, and compliance metrics
• Strategic advisory to align IT with broader M&A goals

Gartner found that healthcare organizations using pre-defined frameworks from external IT partners complete complex identity consolidation projects 25% more efficiently than those building from scratch (Gartner, 2022).

Conclusion: Buying Expertise Is Often Cheaper Than Learning the Hard Way

Healthcare M&A is complex, sensitive, and time-bound. IT integration is one of the most critical success factors—but also one of the most underestimated in scope and complexity.

Yes, external support carries a price tag. But when modeled against:

• The monthly cost of integration delays
• The risk of security incidents
• The internal bandwidth constraints
• The operational burden on clinical systems

That price tag begins to look like a safeguard—and a strategic accelerator. In the end, the decision is not whether you can afford external support.
It’s whether you can afford to go without it.
Sources:

• KPMG, 2021. “Post-Merger IT Integration in Healthcare.”
• HIMSS, 2023. “Healthcare CIO Outlook: Staffing, Skills, and Strategic Gaps.”
• IDC, 2023. “External IT Support and Time-to-Value in Healthcare M&A.”
• IBM Security, 2023. “Cost of a Data Breach Report.”
• Ponemon Institute, 2023. “Mature IAM Programs and Incident Cost Reduction.”
• Forrester Research, 2022. “The Impact of External IT Augmentation on Uptime During M&A.”
• Gartner, 2022. “Framework-Driven Integration Efficiency in Healthcare IT Projects.”