Reducing healthcare costs through co-op care.

The crisis of rising consumer costs in healthcare has its roots in the history of medicine combined with the public's perceived right to healthcare. To reduce costs, many institutions have reduced staff which, according to some critics, threatens quality of care. A true solution may be quite complex, requiring movement from the current paternalistic approaches typical of acute-care settings toward a cooperative model of illness care with an emphasis on wellness behavior. The concepts of efficacy and negotiated levels of health in the cooperative model care triad have been shown to reduce the cost of illness care while increasing satisfaction, client compliance and quality of care.