Physician collaboration with payers: an important step on the road to optimum patient care.

Abstract

In simpler times, patients willingly exchanged such things as food, clothing, and the fruits of their labor directly with physicians as payment for medical services rendered. Since the advent of third-party intermediaries who assumed responsibility for that payment, physicians have had a tenuous and often confrontational relationship with those intermediaries. This article discusses the rationale, principles, and methods whereby physicians can reverse the long-standing trend of confrontation with payers and thus provide benefit to themselves, payers, and patients through a collaborative process of positive engagement.