We're glad the area's two largest health care networks have decided to start talking about what they can do together, cooperatively, rather than continue the game of one-upmanship that's marked their relationship for decades.
Working together, wherever it leads, can only be better for them and for the area residents who use the services they provide.
A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital and Bassett Healthcare officials said no meetings have been held yet, and that upcoming talks will focus on cooperating, not merging, a buyout or a corporate link.
By ``cooperating,'' they're referring to a sharing of some clinical services, which have yet to be identified. Having some Bassett doctors working at FoxCare and perhaps some Fox physicians in Cooperstown certainly could be more convenient for customers _ and more efficient for Fox and Bassett.
John Remillard, Fox president and chief executive officer, said this week that motivations for cooperation include a physician shortage, government reimbursement rates and a growing number of uninsured patients.
While competition is generally viewed as favoring consumers because it keeps their costs lower and drives providers to seek better ways to serve them, in this case and in this day and age that may not be the case. Health care costs already are out of control and regulated so much by insurers that any Fox-Bassett cooperation can only be good for area residents.
Of course, we've heard talk of linking or merging the two institutions before, back in the 1990s, when the same motivating factors cited today led them to propose a merger in 1994 and then an affiliation in 1997.
Back then, however, the situation was different when the Fox medical staff opposed any connection with Bassett. Then, most physicians affiliated with Fox were in private practice and not employees of the hospital.
Now, that's changed. The Fox medical staff voted last month in favor of initiating talks, said Dr. Benjamin Friedell, a physician with Oneonta Family Practice and a Fox employee. Now, a majority of physicians on the Fox medical staff are employees of the hospital.
``There has become less and less resistance on the part of the medical staff to shared medical services with Bassett,'' Friedell said this week.
And, today, there likely would be less resistance in the Oneonta community than 13 years ago when many older residents feared losing the close ties they felt to what had been a local institution for decades.
We whole-heartedly agree that Fox and Bassett should begin working to cooperate in any way possible and keep their options for the future wide open.
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