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Consolidation in the industry made bigger strides last week, with two large managed-care deals and an information technology merger. While some fear the insurer deals will put even more price pressure on physicians and hospitals, the GE Healthcare-IDX merger drew some praise. James Thrall, left, of Massachusetts General Hospital, says it's likely to improve integration of radiology systems.

While other health systems have been steadily getting rid of the HMOs they launched in the 1980s and '90s, UW Health is buying one back. "We decided it was better for us to own the HMO independently than to have it operate within the WellPoint-Anthem framework," says Jane Barnett, left.

In the past, when it came to labor relations in the healthcare industry, adversarial encounters were the norm. But times are changing, at least at some healthcare organizations, notably Kaiser Permanente, which late last month signed a national labor contract with some two dozen unions. Elsewhere, however, confrontation is often still the order of the day, especially between nurse unions and Catholic Healthcare West.

Managed-care companies continue to bail out of the Medicare HMO business, but many plans are staying in the game, believing they can be winners. They're using creative survival strategies as well as old standbys such as cutting services or increasing seniors' out-of-pocket costs. Says Thomas Lucksinger (left), chief executive officer of AmCare Health Plans: "It's going to be a low-margin business but still a very good business for us."