ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author begins with his review of the health care delivery scene in metropolitan Chicago with a brief excursus on the term "managed care," which is used repeatedly and is in fact central to the discussion of academic health centers. The Chicago market is highly fragmented and as such has not under gone rapid HMO penetration. The reason for its fragmentation is that there are no huge megasystems dominating either side of the landscape. In terms of insurers, there are four major competitors that together control about 85 percent of the HMO business—the Blues, a large player; Humana, a large player; United Health Care, a newcomer but also a large player, and our group, Rush Prudential, which is a fifty-fifty joint venture between the two named partners.
