Lessons learned: the managed care experiences of family planning providers

This article examines key opportunities and obstacles facing community-based family planning agencies seeking to be "players" in the provision of contraceptive and related services in the managed care context. Based on telephone interviews with people working in or closely with a range of family planning provider agencies in five states, it identifies a range of innovative strategies that family planning providers have developed in pursuing arrangements with managed care organizations. It further identifies five difficult issues that have arisen repeatedly in the course of negotiating or implementing those arrangements.