The Corporation Has Arrived

The corporatization of medicine that sociologist Paul Starr predicted in his 1982 landmark work, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, has come to pass in many ways and is reshaping the delivery of American health care for both good and bad. Although the corporate focus on cost and efficiency is welcome at a time of constrained resources, the more pernicious impacts of corporatization must be managed to keep the health care industry focused on the health of our patients and our communities. The corporation is here to stay. The challenge is to make peace with that reality and work within it to reap its potential benefits while maintaining health care as a social good.