As healthcare organizations reorient their business toward an accountable future, strategic partnerships of many stripes form the backbone of their drive to survive.
This article first appeared in the May 2015 issue of HealthLeaders magazine.
As payers, patients, and the federal government raise standards of reimbursement beyond the provision of services and toward accountability for outcomes, many healthcare organizations are realizing they're too small. Or they're too focused on the hospital business. Or they don't have the proper geographic coverage.
The reasons your organization may need a strategic partner are myriad. In some cases, the partner provides scale. In others, it may provide expertise or share in the risk associated with participation in pilot programs for bundled payments or other risk-based reimbursement.
There are numerous paths to choose from where once the only viable option might have been a traditional merger or acquisition. Hospitals, health systems, physician practices, and a variety of pre- and postacute services are partnering through clinical affiliation, sometimes by way of contracts with niche partners or in some cases through direct ownership of these modalities.
Philip Betbeze is the senior leadership editor at HealthLeaders.