The Provider's perspective regarding managed care depends on which provider one talks to. Basically, if one were to talk to five providers, one most likely would get six varying opinions. As far as what is the right answer in how to deal with the many issues managed care has brought up, there may not be a single right answer.
Some providers are active in policy-making on a state and national level.
Provider's may be participating in or leading their professional association's lobbying efforts to pass or revise or create certain laws or regulations. Some providers are looking at unions as the answer to compete against HMOs. The thinking here is that there is power in numbers, that the stronger the unified front, the stronger the negotiation power. For example, the least effective drug for the management of menorrhagia, on the basis of a meta-analysis of randomized trials, was found to be the drug prescribed most frequently for the condition in a sample of general practices. Because there is an increasing use of interventions to change professional service and most research in this regard has focused on how to evaluate effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, this article, published in England, looks at various methodological issues regarding appropriate research design for evaluations of implementation interventions.