Physician-hospital organizations: the "training wheels" of tomorrow's provider-sponsored networks?

The formation of regional physician-hospital organizations will be the next step in the evolution of managed care. Regional PHOs will have advantage over single-hospital PHOs by covering a wider population and geographic area, offering greater cost-effectiveness, and being able to contract as a unified provider. This, in turn, will set the stage for the next step in the process: the development of provider-sponsored networks.