The market made them do it. Participants in the Medicare Choices project say they're nudging out the insurance middleman--and insuring their own survival. Panel discussion.

: Medicare is experimenting again. This time HCFA wants to figure out ways to expand managed care options for the elderly. Under the Medicare Choices Demonstration Project, hospitals and health systems are developing and testing alternatives to standard Medicare HMOs. Dick Davidson, president of the American Hospital Association, sees these pilot programs as the precursors to provider-sponsored organizations building up a base of knowledge about what it means to manage risk. The AHA recently convened a meeting of organizations involved in the demonstration project and asked Hospitals & Health Networks executive editor Alden Solovy to lead a panel discussion on the lessons being learned.