Will Mergers Get Hospitals Out of the Sick Ward?

Regardless of what happens with the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare, hospitals must cut costs, one hospital executive said.

It won't be easy, Steven Corwin, NY-Presbyterian Hospital CEO, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Monday. “The hospitals are really going to struggle.”

And, it could mean that more will look to merge.

“I think you need economies of scale to get the costs out. And obviously some people are worried about too much consolidation in the hospital industry, so there’ll be a push and pull,” Corwin said.

But reducing costs by reining in labor and non-labor expenses or making greater use of efficiency-enhancing information technology cannot come at the expense of quality, he warned. Ensuring access to health care remains imperative as well.

“At the end of the day, no matter what happens with the individual mandate, we have to insure more Americans because not insuring Americans raises the cost of health care,” Corwin said.

—By CNBC.com's Justin Menza.