“Getting the Two to Dance” - How Intra-Organizational Readiness Fosters Collaboration Quality between Hospitals and Health Insurance Providers

Abstract

According to the health-value chain concept, collaborations can optimize the interaction processes between actors of healthcare systems. This paper focuses on assessing the perceived inter-organizational collaboration quality between Swiss hospitals and health insurance providers and on assessing its influencing intra-organizational factors.

A conceptual framework is proposed to understand the perceived quality of collaboration and applied on a survey with Swiss hospital/insurance employees. The results from a regression analysis support the hypotheses on intra-organizational readiness factors: for practitioners it is recommended to increase the three readiness dimensions Proficiency, Willingness and Empowerment, as they play a major role on the perceived collaboration-quality.