How physician organizations are responding to managed care.

Despite a rash of troubles in 1998, physician organizations--formed in response to managed care plans--can thrive if they are locally owned, physician-run and rationally sized, said panelists at a recent roundtable organized by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). The panelists also noted the market's slow progress toward global capitation as a way of compensating physician organizations, and the generally weak state of information systems required to support the goals behind capitation: accountability, efficiency and quality. This Issue Brief reports on governance, physician-hospital relationships, capital needs, compensation and other developments covered at the roundtable.