How to build a specialty MSO

The specialty-based management services organization (MSO), with its focus on management support, contracting, information systems and related benefits, is intended to help preserve specialist physician access to patients. It does this by enabling the MSO's physicians to clearly differentiate themselves from other specialist providers. To be successful, however, an MSO must be built on a shared vision of its goals. Considerations of structural, operational, ownership, antitrust and governance concerns should all follow from that ground. All parties should recognize that MSOs are best in the long-term; they are not short-term solutions.