Hospitals adopting the old axiom--in numbers there is strength.

Almost a third of the nation's hospitals are owned, leased or managed by hospital corporations, and the trend toward professional group management is expected to continue. It is partly a response to the growing complexities of the federal laws that govern reimbursements for medicare and medicaid services and that dictate conformity to state plans for hospital expansion. Group ownership is also a way of pooling resources to make it easier to obtain the capital for expansion.