Time for 'coopetition' is now

• Published in: Physician executive Vol. 33; no. 4; pp. 66 - 67
• Main Author: Terrell, Grace E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American College of Physician Executives 01.07.2007; American Association for Physician Leadership
• Subjects: Competition; Cooperation; Cooperative Behavior; Economic Competition; Finance; Financial management; Health administration; Health care industry; Health Care Reform; Health Care Sector - organization & administration; Laws, regulations and rules; Management; Medical care; Physicians; United States; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0898-2759

Americans' health care system has a health care finance system that tacitly is based upon competition. Physicians, hospitals and third-party payers all compete with one another with the assumption that this will drive down the cost of health care and improve quality and access. Some health care analysts are beginning to recognize the fallacy and are calling for changes in regulation that would allow a more cooperative approach among the various players in the health care market. The physician executive needs to get used to the idea of "coopetition," a state of "cooperation" and "competition" occurring simultaneously among parties in the health care world that will be inevitable as they attempt to manage the coming evolution of the industry. By acknowledging this underlying actuality, they transcend the usual categories they use to define its problems and may therefore find new creative ways in which to attack them.