Healthcare mergers often stumble not because of flawed strategy or cultural misalignment, but because of IT hesitation. The systems don’t talk. The teams don’t connect. The data doesn’t flow. And all the while, the promise of efficiency and synergy slips further away. Every month that passes without a cohesive IT integration plan costs real dollars, invites compliance risk, and degrades patient care. In fact, according to KPMG, many health systems lose $300,000 to $500,000 per month in unrealized value due to delayed IT integration. That’s not a rounding error—it’s a red flag.

1. Operational Costs Pile Up Fast

Delaying IT integration creates a drag on day-to-day operations. Merged organizations are left running duplicate infrastructure, supporting separate domains, and maintaining multiple service contracts

According to Forrester Research, 30 to 40 percent of post-merger IT costs are spent maintaining legacy systems that should have been decommissioned (Forrester, 2023). These include:

• Parallel Active Directory (AD) environments
• Redundant identity and access management tools
• Extra licensing fees for duplicated software platforms
• Separate IT teams supporting overlapping systems

Beyond hard costs, there’s the soft cost of wasted time: clinicians bouncing between systems, staff manually reconciling records, and IT teams triaging issues that shouldn’t exist in a unified environment.

Bottom line: Without IT consolidation, the new organization is burning budget on two tech stacks but operating as one business

2. Delayed Access Hurts Productivity and Patient Care

The longer it takes to integrate identity systems, the longer it takes for people to do their jobs effectively.

Delayed Active Directory consolidation and slow IAM standardization means that clinicians, administrative staff, and third-party partners often juggle multiple credentials, face login issues, and deal with inconsistent access to clinical systems.

According to the Ponemon Institute, password-related issues alone account for 30 to 50 percent of all healthcare IT help desk calls, and post-merger identity delays only increase the problem (Ponemon, 2023).

This doesn’t just cause frustration—it leads to:

• Slower time-to-access for patient records
• Increased risk of errors due to system fragmentation
• Loss of productivity for clinical and admin teams
• Higher burden on help desk support staff

Every delay in system unification is a delay in care delivery—and that comes at a real financial and reputational cost.

3. Security and Compliance Risks Multiply

Fragmented systems are vulnerable systems. When IT environments remain siloed post-merger, security policies differ, monitoring is inconsistent, and access governance is difficult to enforce.

Healthcare is the #1 targeted industry for cyberattacks, and disjointed identity infrastructure is a known risk factor. IBM’s 2023 report found that the average cost of a healthcare data breach is $10.93 million, the highest of any sector (IBM Security, 2023).

Key risks of delayed integration include:

• Orphaned accounts with lingering access
• Inconsistent MFA and password policies
• Difficulty maintaining audit logs and system visibility
• Compliance misalignment across HIPAA, HITRUST, and GDPR frameworks

According to the Ponemon Institute, organizations with mature identity governance experience 60 percent fewer identity related incidents and reduce breach response costs by over $1 million (Ponemon, 2023). Without a unified IT environment, those benefits are out of reach.

4. IT Teams Get Stretched Too Thin

When IT systems remain divided, so do the teams that manage them. Instead of focusing on strategic improvements, IT departments spend their time:

• Managing tickets related to duplicate systems
• Maintaining parallel infrastructure
• Addressing access issues across fragmented directories
• Supporting outdated systems slated for decommissioning

This isn’t just inefficient—it’s unsustainable. IT staff burnout is real, especially during M&A transitions. A report by HIMSS shows that 70 percent of healthcare CIOs cite talent retention as a top post-merger concern, driven largely by integration delays and workload pressure (HIMSS, 2023).

Every month of delay adds to that strain, increases turnover risk, and further slows the path to unified operations.

5. Strategic Initiatives Get Put on Hold

While IT teams are tied up supporting legacy systems, long-term initiatives suffer. Digital transformation efforts, AI-driven diagnostics, cloud migration, and patient engagement platforms all require integrated identity and infrastructure.

Delayed integration doesn’t just slow existing operations—it prevents future ones from starting. This is especially true in:

• Expanding telehealth services
• Implementing cross-organization EHR access
• Integrating with external research or payer networks
• Launching analytics platforms for value-based care

IDC reports that healthcare organizations with consolidated IT systems achieve digital transformation goals 40 percent faster than those with fragmented environments (IDC, 2023). Without integration, the merged entity remains stuck in neutral.

Conclusion: Delay Is Not Neutral. It’s Expensive.

Every week that passes without IT integration is a missed opportunity. It’s wasted money, duplicated effort, increased risk, and reduced patient satisfaction. What’s framed as a “delay” is often a slow-motion derailment.

Healthcare leaders must recognize that IT consolidation—especially identity and access infrastructure—isn’t a technical chore. It’s a financial, operational, and strategic priority.

The question is no longer whether you can afford to invest in integration. It’s whether you can afford not to.

Sources:

• KPMG, 2021. “Post-Merger IT Integration in Healthcare: The Untapped Value.”
• Forrester Research, 2023. “IT Redundancy and Cost in Post-Merger Scenarios.”
• Ponemon Institute, 2023. “Healthcare Identity Governance and Help Desk Economics.”
• IBM Security, 2023. “Cost of a Data Breach Report.”
• HIMSS, 2023. “Top Challenges for Healthcare CIOs Post-M&A.”
• IDC, 2023. “The Role of IT Consolidation in Accelerating Healthcare Digital Transformation.”