ABSTRACT
Physician-hospital organizations (PHOs), independent provider associations (IPAs), management services organization (MSOs), and co-management analyses will bring one to the question about simply just contracting for physician services. This is typical for hospital-based and dependent specialty groups like radiologists and pathologists. More recently, the emergency department (ED) physicians and hospitalists have been contracted to cover their respective areas of responsibility. There are also some other groups that might naturally be thought of as being best organized through contracting rather than by some other type of organization. These include intensivists, those doctors who cover the intensive care units, and in some isolated cases, proceduralists.
