Collaboration and Competition Coexist

Publication Date: January 1998

Publisher: Center for Studying Health System Change

Author(s): Caroline Rossi Steinberg; Linda T. Kohn; June Eichner; Loel S. Solomon

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Coverage: New York

Abstract:

In June 1998, a team of researchers visited Syracuse, N.Y., to study that community's health system, how it is changing and the impact on consumers. More than 40 leading people in the local health care market were interviewed by Health System Change and The Lewin Group as part of the Community Tracking Study. Syracuse is one of 12 communities that HSC tracks every two years through site visits and surveys. Individual community reports are published for each round of site visits. The first site visit to Syracuse, in May 1996, provided baseline information against which changes are tracked. The Syracuse market includes Onondaga, Cayuga, Madison and Oswego counties. The Syracuse health care market looks significantly different today from the way it did two years ago. Change, however, unfolded differently from how those in the market expected. At the time, there was concern that the powerful forces of change on the horizon would erode one of the hallmarks of Syracuse's health system - its collaborative character-but that remains intact. Changes causing concern in 1996 included the demise of hospital rate setting, mandatory Medicaid managed care, an emerging purchasing coalition and the entry of national managed companies into the local market. To date, none of these changes has had the impact anticipated because they either were delayed or did not yield the expected market response.