The hospital may put up the majority of the cash, however. For the sake of practitioner motivation, physician equity is considered a desired feature. Ongoing revenue to the simplest form of PHO may be a non-item because the entity could serve only as a cost center for the hospital. As the PHO takes on various MSO functions, however, participating providers pay a fee for those services. Third party payers also may pay an access fee.
Governance can evolve similarly.
That is, in its simplest form hospital administrators may run the entity. Most PHOs are establishing formal governing boards, however. Board composition is usually equally divided between hospital administrators and physicians, with attention being given to primary care representation within the physician component. These are described separately because MCOs often view them that way. The open PHO is one that is open to virtually any member of the medical staff of the hospital.