Bridging the provider-payer gap.(Guest Editorial)

If providers and payers do not work together to improve the health care system, politicians will do it for us.

Physicians, hospitals, health plans, and others should join forces and lobby together for medical liability reform. Tort reform is an area of common ground, and working together on the issue would both lend power to our lobbying efforts and help to restore trust between these communities.

Medical liability reform is a huge issue, financially and emotionally, in the provider community, but it's also an issue in the payer community. It may be an opportunity to start a productive dialogue, and if we are successful in this area it would be a win for everyone because it would help control health care costs, thus making more money available for patient care.

As a family physician with 13 years in practice and 21 years of managed care experience, I have a unique perspective on the relationship between providers and payers. As I see it, the foremost challenge in the relationship is the lack of trust, which has been exacerbated over the last decade as health care costs have risen and the country has debated health care reforms.

Other challenges include insurers' short-term focus, a disorganized provider system, the liability crisis, administrative costs, conflicting missions, and physicians' protection from a real-cost marketplace.

In addition, there are larger systemic issues like the uninsured and underinsured, who are a growing segment of patients.

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