What if in five years? Ten years?

As if we don’t have enough problems already.

Just curious to hear if you think any of these are viable. What happens to the hospital business model if we see this type of vertical or horizontal integration? Primary care doctors outsource their up-market needs to hospitals, why can’t hospitals do that and move down-market? What if:

* Payors buy hospitals then “outsource” the care back to the hospitals
* Hospitals also serve as payors
* Hospitals buy specialists way outside of their network and create a “branch healthcare” model similar to that of branch banking.

What do you think?

Paul M. Roemer
Chief Imaginist, Healthcare IT Strategy