Channels Summary
Visualize at one point a person who is sick or injured and at a second point a doctor who is capable of providing the treatment that the sick or injured person needs. The way that the person and the doctor are brought together is a health care services distribution channel. There are many such channels. An injured person, as an example, might be taken to a hospital emergency room. At the emergency room the patient and the doctor are brought together. The injured person, the emergency room, and the doctor together make up the health care distribution channel. In another example, a sick person may be covered by a health insurance policy. The health insurance company may have established a list of PPOs through which the insured sick person must obtain health care before the insurance company will pay for that care. If the sick person sees a doctor who is a member of a PPO on the insurance company(s list, the doctor may send the sick person to a hospita
...