Sorting Through the Options. (Physician/Hospital Business Relationships)‪.‬

WHETHER THEY ARE ALREADY EMBROILED IN aggressively managed markets or are preparing for managed care dominance, providers agree that physician/hospital partnering is critical to success in the newly emerging health care system. But, local market characteristics determine, to a great extent, which physician/hospital business strategies and structures will be most successful. That is, one has to match strategies with specific market characteristics in order to achieve business goals. During interviews conducted in the spring of 1997, 45 executives and physicians from hospitals, health care systems, physician/hospital organizations (PHOs.sub.), and management services organizations (MSOs) discussed strategies and structures being used in their markets. The authors have synthesized providers' comments and their own observations to provide a context for critical review of physician/hospital business relationships.