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To end 2025, we assigned each reporter in the WW newsroom to pick two stories by a colleague that stood out in 2025. We then had the recipient of the compliment pass it on—but not before penning an update to the tales. Here’s the first of these stories.
“Operation: Merger”
April 23
Why Sophie Peel loved it: Leading up to his April 23 cover story about the now-dead Legacy-OHSU merger—which at that point was still on, though resting on a two-legged stool—Anthony Effinger followed a drip of turnover at the highest levels of Oregon Health & Science University and Legacy as the two massive hospital systems tried to merge into one. The drip, at some point, became a burbling stream of issues and cracks in the merger plan that Anthony managed to lay out plainly for readers. Just two weeks after this cover story, the two hospital giants announced that the yearslong attempt to broker a deal was off.
Anthony’s deep sourcing, steady coverage of small crises at both systems, and detailed financial reporting played no small part in helping the public understand the consequences of such a major merger (including, most likely, increased costs for patients). He also laid out in understandable terms just how fragile the deal was from the start.
Killer detail: OHSU and Legacy told state regulators in planning documents that the merger wouldn’t result in increased costs for patients any more than no merger would. But two professors that conduct research on health care mergers told WW differently, saying the merger would likely increase patient costs by 6%.
Anthony Effinger on what’s happened since: OHSU hired a new president earlier this year. Dr. Shereef Elnahal replaced interim president Steve Stadum, an old OHSU hand who returned to stabilize the institution after the ouster of Dr. Danny Jacobs, who had pushed for the ill-fated purchase of Legacy Health. Elnahal faces challenges that Jacobs didn’t, as the Trump administration makes war on hospitals that offer care for trans patients and slashes Medicaid funding.
