The article defines the corporatization of healthcare as a trend toward greater integration of control by profit-oriented consolidated businesses[3][1]. It involves vertical consolidation, where insurance companies such as UnitedHealthcare and CVS-Aetna control physicians, home care, pharmacies, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)[1][3]. The key elements are the priority of generating profit for shareholders (shareholder primacy) and massive consolidation, which makes these entities systemically important[1][2]. This development has been accelerated by the rise of managed care and the role of private insurance companies in state programs[1]. Recently, the term "financialization" has emerged to describe the involvement of financial institutions, such as private equity firms, in the extraction of wealth from healthcare[1]. Corporatization subordinates the interests of patients, workers and communities to shareholder profit[1][2]. The article is part of a New England Journal of Medicine series on the corporatization of American healthcare[1][3].