Building public health goals into the purchasing process: managed care perspective.

Public health and managed care organizations are increasingly developing contracts for the care of Medicaid patients. Factors leading to this relationship include increasing managed care interest in returning to the concept of "health maintenance" and population medicine, and the decreasing funding available to public health. Each partner has strengths that can be utilized in such relationships. Obstacles exist in the development of this relationship, including the already considerable reporting burdens on managed care organizations and issues surrounding the contracts and delegation of services. Despite this there are many examples of public health managed care partnerships.