How's Your Health? When health care is healthy, it's the industry to be in--and the current chaos in the sector may be the opening you need.

Health care is a $1.4 trillion industry. It's been estimatedto consume 15 percent of our gross domestic product. But it'salso an industry in flux. Consider hospitals, which are strugglingto improve their financial performance as they compete increasinglywith private clinics and urgent care centers that offer specializedservices at less cost. "That's revenue that won't goto the hospitals anymore," says Jody Root, a partner and chairof the health law department at Foley & Lardner, a law firm inSan Diego. "The traditional model of health-care delivery haschanged."

Today, health care is a Pandora's box of problems.Well-trained health-care professionals are in short supply.Providers and insurance companies are trying to meet a spring 2003deadline for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability andAccountability Act (HIPAA), which sets new federal privacystandards for patient documents. Meanwhile, employers--stymied byrising insurance premiums--are looking to shift more cost toemployees at the same time that consumers and doctors, tired ofmanaged care, are wanting more control over their health choices.As a result, insurers are moving far away from the HMO model towarddefined contribution health plans that offer more choices. Stategovernors, driven by deficits, have asked the federal governmentfor $6 billion to cover expected Medicaid shortfalls, an amountthey're not likely to receive from politicians in Washingtonwho so far have been dragging their feet on the health-care issue.The list goes on.