Case manager-physician collaboration: implications for professional identity, roles, and relationships.

The backdrop for this article is the continuing drama of changing roles and relationships among health care professionals. This article reports the results of a study of the professional identities, roles, and relationships of case managers in nine demonstration sites around the United States. Funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, the demonstration projects use diverse personnel to enhance the role of primary care physicians in practice with elderly people. Implications for health care social workers, educators, and community-based providers are presented.