Can't we just get along...?

In order to successfully integrate healthcare into value driven delivery systems that are truly accountable, the stakeholders will have to stop trying to work around each other, and engage. Financial and Clinical Intellectual capital are both necessary. The providers of both types of capital must respect and value the others perspectives and needs in order to surmount the challenges healthcare faces.

The accumulation and management of financial resources is a sine-qua-non of risk-taking / global payment / accountable care organizations. Clinicians must recognize that capital formation and accumulation are real challenges that have been lacking in many provider owned organizations. Having financial experts inside the healthcare organization brings competitive advantage. We can't 'go it alone' and need to stop resenting that those who hold the capital have a right to a seat at the table, to have their perspective incorporated into decision-making / strategy.

Financial capital sources within healthcare must come to grips with the reality that physicians are not a commodity to be "worked around" or replaced. These strategies have been tried and proven to not work. The active and explicit strategy of securing the trust of informed and engaged physicians is the only option left. The investment must be made in the development of Clinical Intellectual capital that can engage with the financial minds for decision-making / strategy.

Securing physicians who are informed and engaged is The Task. Both conditions are required for truly integrating healthcare. Engagement without enlightenment is rampant in U..S. healthcare systems, and leads to schizophrenic organizational strategies.  Fully informing physician leaders, without a pathway to full engagement, only empowers viable competition for the organization.

Any organization with fully developed clinical intellectual capital - informed and engaged physicians - will have little trouble securing financial capital.