Ebay and Craigslist have disintermediated the classified section in the newspaper, which used to be the largest moneymaker in that business. The newspaper as middleman has been put to bed for the last time.

But in healthcare, middlemen abound. Hospital systems are middlemen for their controlled/employed physicians. Insurance companies, and even more so on steroids, IPAs and risk bearing medical groups are the middlemen between, largely, employers and their employees’ medical care.