Challenging assumptions held by investors and patient-care advocates, this work explains the financial underpinning of today's investor-owned systems. It provides an objective overview of major investment-owned health companies, and compares them with non-investor owned health care companies.

Getting Bigger to Get Better.

A Climate for Consolidation.

Tapping the Rich Vein of Physician Practices.

Lessons from the Biggest Consolidator, Columbia/HCA/.

Hospital Consolidators of the "Not-for-Profit" Breed.

Managing Managed Care.

The Spreading Power of Consolidation.

Faster, Cheaper, and Smarter.

Investing in Structural Technological Leaps.

Overstepping Old Boundaries in Marketing.

Becoming the Brand That Customers Love.

The Internet: The Consolidator's Best Tool.

No Turning Back.

Behind the media headlines that chronicle the successes—as well as the charges of fraud, abuse, and ethical misconduct—of today?s corporate medical giants, lies the story of the Wall Street players who are determining the structure of our future health systems. Independent hospitals and clinics, small medical technology companies, solo practitioners, and consumers alike acknowledge that the "big business" principles driving the frenzy of mergers and acquisitions are bringing the long-awaited rewards of accountability and predictability to the fragmented healthcare industry. But at what cost?
Sandy Lutz, a renowned medical business reporter and investment analyst, and Big Six accounting firm partners Woodrin Grossman and John Bigalke provide their insiders? insights into the financial workings of Wall Street?s mighty medical corporations—a class the authors refer to as Med Incorporated. With an in-depth study of the most notable leader, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., plus illustrative examples of several other medical giants, Lutz and her coauthors demonstrate how these Med Inc. companies excel in managing capital, information, risk, and government regulation—the four key success factors to achieving operational efficiency and market dominance. They show how the missions and operations of investor-owned companies compare with their noninvestor owned counterparts, and examine how current technological and market developments will shape the future of health systems.
For healthcare executives, analysts, investors, and the Med Incorporated companies of tomorrow, Med Inc. offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to participate successfully in the developing investor-owned organizations that are destined to define the national health system well into the 21st century.

Behind the media headlines that chronicle the successes—as well as the charges of fraud, abuse, and ethical misconduct—of today's corporate medical giants, lies the story of the Wall Street players who are determining the structure of our future health systems. Independent hospitals and clinics, small medical technology companies, solo practitioners, and consumers alike acknowledge that the "big business" principles driving the frenzy of mergers and acquisitions are bringing the long-awaited rewards of accountability and predictability to the fragmented healthcare industry. But at what cost? Sandy Lutz, a renowned medical business reporter and investment analyst, and Big Six accounting firm partners Woodrin Grossman and John Bigalke provide their insiders' insights into the financial workings of Wall Street's mighty medical corporations—a class the authors refer to as Med Incorporated. With an in-depth study of the most notable leader, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., plus illustrative examples of several other medical giants, Lutz and her coauthors demonstrate how these Med Inc. companies excel in managing capital, information, risk, and government regulation—the four key success factors to achieving operational efficiency and market dominance. They show how the missions and operations of investor-owned companies compare with their noninvestor owned counterparts, and examine how current technological and market developments will shape the future of health systems. For healthcare executives, analysts, investors, and the Med Incorporated companies of tomorrow, Med Inc. offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to participate successfully in the developing investor-owned organizations that are destined to define the national health system well into the 21st century.