The relationship between physicians and pharmacy benefit managers continues to change. A goal of Prescription Solutions' Brian Solow, MD, is to foster a collaborative approach to working with physicians, to ultimately deliver better care to patients.

When Jon R. Cohen, MD, was recently appointed managing director of health industries advisory services for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, he says it was "complex solution solving" that drew him to the firm. Here, he discusses trends on hospital mergers, profitability and hospitals, and his thoughts on the 2008 presidential hopefuls.

According to the 2007 Milken Institute Report, "An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease," prevention, early detection and chronic condition management could save the nation $1 trillion annually by 2023. But in the mind of U.S. Preventive Medicine Founder (USPM), Chairman, CEO and Director Christopher Fey, there is something even more important that could be saved: lives.

When Newt Gingrich recently suggested that in the future, consumer healthcare is going to look more like Travelocity and that consumers are going to go where the best care is and shop for the best price for drugs and services, Jonathan Edelheit, president of the Medical Tourism Assn., couldn't have agreed more.

Many organizations believe a free-market system is the best approach to healthcare, but the free market struggles against lagging public policy. Especially as consumers are demanding greater control, advocates point to other industries in which competition has driven down prices and inspired higher quality.

If you ask David Hyman, Cato Institute adjunct scholar and University of Illinois professor of health law and medicine, what's on the horizon for healthcare, he'll tell you he'd rather share his empirical view of what we've learned from the past instead.

Pat Ford-Roegner, MSW, RN, FAAN, CEO of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), seems a natural fit for her latest appointment as a member of the new Washington, D.C.-based Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) Advisory Board. The board, led by Richard H. Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS, former U.S. Surgeon General, is comprised of 40 high-profile CEOs and presidents from the public and private sector.

Roughly 150,000 Americans traveled abroad for care in 2005, and many more are expected to follow suit in the next few years. Medical tourism, once associated mainly with cosmetic procedures, now represents an attractive alternative for consumers to obtain hip replacement, heart procedures and other surgical interventions at a lower cost than what the United States can offer.

If managed care executives can't get accurate information and honest opinions, they can't make the right decisions, according to Allan Baumgarten, author of annual state managed care reviews and an independent research consultant in policy, finance and local market strategies.