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For the second consecutive year, McManis Associates, a health care management consulting firm and subsidiary of MMI Companies Inc., held, in conjunction with the 1996 MGMA/AMA joint legislation conference, an executive forum for leaders of medical group practices for a discussion of some of the key trends and issues they are facing today. The forum included five group practice executives from a variety of organization types and situations, and was structured to encourage them to engage in a candid exchange about their own opinions and experiences. Discussion was facilitated by Gerald L. McManis, president of McManis Associates, Louis Pavia Jr., executive vice president, and F. Kenneth Ackerman Jr., FACMPE, principal associate. This article provides a summary of the forum proceedings, as well as some commentary by the authors, based on their experience in working with medical group practices around the country.

Everyone has huddled over it for months, and now it's a can't-miss strategy for your hospital. Or is it? To find out whether the facility is ready for it, do an "organizational diagnostic" as explained by Gerald McManis in Modern Healthcare's first Managing feature for administrators.

Competition isn't working as a means of controlling healthcare costs. So it's time for hospitals to voluntarily collaborate before a regulation comes along to force cooperation on them, says Gerald McManis.

Strategic planning can provide a meaningful road map for hospital trustees as they chart a course for the future. But as many are discovering, the greatest difficulty lies in getting these strategies off paper and into action. That's where the "people element" comes into play.

Managed health care is one of the biggest changes to occur in the healthcare industry. It has also had one of the greatest effects on the financial viability of hospitals. By the year 2000, it is expected that 70 percent of insurance premiums will be paid to some sort of capitated managed care plan as opposed to traditional insurance. With the arrival of managed care plans comes many questions for hospital CFOs. To answer these questions and gain an understanding of how different organizations are coping with managed health care, a survey of hospital CFOs was conducted. It was concluded that managed care is definitely here to stay. While CFOs feel there are risks involved, managed care plans are an area that will provide the greatest opportunity for organizational growth.

Employee and retiree health care is no longer a fringe benefit. The issue of who pays what share of this growing expenditure is explosively divisive between employers and employees as well as payors and providers. And what appears to be lost in this debate--and the one point that employers, employees and providers will undoubtedly agree on--is that having one's health and a healthy work force is what really matters. If a partnership can be forged to achieve this basic outcome, the incentives for controlling the cost of health care can be put into place for the partners. HR professionals can help their companies by developing a partnering strategy to effectively address the issue of employee health.