Massachusetts’s largest hospital network has acquired a nonprofit Boston insurer in a deal built on promised grants to more than 50 community clinics in the state, says The Boston Globe.

The acquisition of Neighborhood Health Plan marks Partners HealthCare System’s entry into the insurance business as consolidation continues among medical organizations in the state. The Partners nonprofit system runs nine hospitals and a physicians’ network.

No money will change hands under the deal, but the hospital network will pledge an unspecified sum to support community health centers affiliated with the insurer, which covers nearly a quarter of a million mostly low-income people statewide.

Gary L. Gottlieb, Partners’ chief executive, said the merger represented “a critical long-term commitment to take care of this population” amid the squeeze of Medicaid funds and other publicly subsidized health-care services.