Several months of negotiations about how the Marshfield Clinic and Essentia would go about merging to form an integrated regional health system are now in the future of the two entities and Ashland. The DailyPress reports a press release gave no idea about how the merger would affect both facilities in light of the two signing a memorandum of understanding. According to Ashland Mayor Matt MacKenzie, the idea of a merger has existed for a some time, but simply hadn’t been made public. The merger would join a wide network of over 3,800 providers serving more than two million people in rural and mid sized urban communities with more than 150 care sites and 25 hospitals in four states.