Comparing the efficiency of competition strategy to coopetition strategy in managed care in South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this research is to measure the difference in efficiency between a coopetition strategy and a competition strategy pursued in a managed care organisation in order to guide South African managed care organisations (MCO’s) in their endeavours to ensure sustainable provision of affordable, quality, accessible healthcare. Medical doctors are not convinced of the efficiency of managed care strategies and are suspicious of managed care initiatives. Competitive managed care strategy is perceived by medical doctors as high handed and as the cause of adversarial relationships between doctors and MCO’s. Competitive strategy is contrasted to a coopetitive managed care strategy departing from the premise that doctors would improve their efficiency if they are incentivised to do so in a transparent, objective manner. The research compared the efficiency means (ìPI) of two groups of doctors engaging the MCO with either competitive or coopetitive strategies. Insufficient statistical evidence was found to confirm that the coopetitive strategy was significantly more efficient than the competitive strategy. Even though the research cannot confirm that the coopetitive strategy is significantly more efficient (á 0.1) there is enough evidence to indicate that the coopetitive strategy is more efficient than the competitive strategy, given a slightly higher alpha value (á) of 0.2. The research also illustrates that the efficiency of coopetitive strategy depends on effective implementation and not on the choice of strategy only. Copyright