A Medical Cooperative is a member-owned, non-profit or for-profit organization that provides healthcare services, insurance, or medical resources to its members. It operates on a cooperative model, meaning it is controlled by the healthcare providers, patients, or businesses that use its services, rather than by shareholders or investors. Medical cooperatives aim to improve healthcare access, reduce costs, and enhance service quality through collective ownership and management.
Medical cooperatives vary in structure and services but typically provide:
Group Healthcare Services: Cooperatives pool resources to provide affordable medical care for members, including primary care, specialist visits, mental health services, and diagnostics.
Shared Medical Purchasing: Some medical cooperatives focus on group purchasing, helping hospitals, clinics, and independent physicians buy medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and equipment at reduced prices.
Health Insurance & Risk Sharing: Member-driven health insurance cooperatives help individuals or businesses access affordable healthcare coverage by spreading risk across a larger group.
Telemedicine & Digital Health: Many modern medical cooperatives invest in telehealth platforms, allowing members to access virtual consultations, electronic health records, and remote monitoring services.
Preventative & Wellness Programs: Some cooperatives offer health education, chronic disease management programs, and wellness initiatives to reduce overall healthcare costs.

How to Create a Medical Cooperative

1. Define the Purpose & Model
  1. Determine the type of cooperative (e.g., provider-owned, patient-owned, purchasing cooperative).
  2. Identify the core services (insurance, clinics, purchasing, digital health, etc.).
2. Establish a Cooperative Structure
  1. Decide on membership eligibility (individuals, hospitals, doctors, employers, etc.).
  2. Define voting rights, decision-making processes, and governance (e.g., board of directors, advisory committees).
3. Register the Cooperative
  1. Choose a legal entity (co-op, nonprofit, mutual benefit corporation, etc.).
  2. 2.File state and federal registration documents based on cooperative laws.
4. Secure Funding & Capital
  1. Raise member contributions, cooperative fees, or private funding.
  2. Apply for grants, government incentives, or cooperative development programs.
5. Develop Healthcare Partnerships
  1. Form alliances with hospitals, clinics, insurance providers, and pharmaceutical companies.
  2. Create preferred provider networks to secure better pricing and service agreements.
6. Launch & Scale Services
  1. Start with pilot programs (e.g., a small clinic, digital health platform, or group insurance plan).
  2. Expand based on member demand and financial sustainability.

Examples of Medical Cooperatives:

HealthPartners (USA)

A Minnesota-based consumer-owned healthcare cooperative providing insurance, hospitals, clinics, and pharmacy services to over 1.8 million members.
healthpartners.com

Group Health Cooperative (USA)

A Washington-based member-governed healthcare system that offered affordable, high-quality medical care before merging with Kaiser Permanente in 2017.
www.KP.org

Mountain Health CO-OP

Established in 2010, Mountain Health CO-OP is a nonprofit, member-led health insurance cooperative operating in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. It was founded under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act to introduce more competition into state insurance markets. The CO-OP offers individual and group health insurance plans.
mountainhealth.coop

Ithaca Health Alliance

Founded in 1997, the Ithaca Health Alliance is a community-based health cooperative located in Ithaca, New York. It provides financial assistance for specific medical needs, health education, and operates the Ithaca Free Clinic, offering free medical and holistic services to the community.
www.ithacahealth.org

Christian Care Ministry

Established in 1993, Christian Care Ministry offers Medi-Share, a healthcare sharing program where members share medical expenses in alignment with Christian principles. While not insurance, Medi-Share allows members to assist each other with medical costs. s of October 2017, the program had over 300,000 members
www.medishare.com

Partnering Brands Ideal for Medical Centers and Others

What is MDMeals: MDMeals is a medical industry culinary group founded by a team of physicians, registered dietitians, and seasoned experts in the food and restaurant industry. We specialize in providing tailored meals designed to address your specific chronic medical conditions. Our top- tier chefs craft delectable dishes, meticulously analyzed by our registered dietitians and overseen by our medical professionals to align perfectly with your medical needs. By choosing from our diverse menu options, you can avoid the hassle of meal preparation while adhering to your physician's dietary recommendations.

Food Service Providers:  We educate brands about companies such as Compass (Foodbuy), Sodexo, Aramark, Delaware North and many others provide a very important service in being the operators of a cafeteria, retail area and possibly vending.
www.FoodServiceProviders.org

Definition:  A Food service provider is a company who contracts with a specific institution to provide food or beverage services at any location on the premises of that institution.   Common examples include colleges/universities, hospitals, government buildings, convention centers, remote sites, tourist locations, active aging facilities and others.

Our History With Grab-and-Go

We created the first series of grab-and-go programs in the early 1990's and evolved into becoming distribution platform developers and operators for formats such as hotels, camp-grounds and marinas.
Our first series of snack and beverage programs (including with Best Buy, Lowe's, Hilton and Staples) grew to an annual $500 million and evolved into new programs within the food service formats (smoothie, juice, yogurt, coffee, deli, colleges and universities, hospitals, offices and factories, stadiums and arenas, theme parks, water parks, zoos, aquariums and more).
www.GrabandGo.org

The Innovation Business Network

The Innovation Business Group was created to help start-up and emerging consumer brands understand the diversity of retail, food service, hospitality, medical and institutional channels that are out there to do business with.

* IBG is helping start-up and emerging brands with their sales and marketing efforts in relation to medical, wellness and nutrition formats.

The Innovation Business Group (IBG) is an extension of the Contract Manufacturing Alliance (www.ContractMFG.org) which helps consumer brands (of all-sizes) with their contract manufacturing search and relationship needs. Our roster of contract manufacturers, co-packers and packagers is over 43,000.

The Contract Manufacturing Alliance (Contract Manufacturers, Pilot Plants, Private Labelers, Commercial Kitchens, Food Innovation Centers and More) Was Created to Be the Key Resource For Anything to Do With Manufacturing Consumer Products (For Start-up and Emerging Brands).

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Foods Commercial
Kitchens Food
Innovation Centers Pilot
Plants Contract
Manufacturing Private
Labeling CPG With
Facilities Inventions /
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Pioneering Industry Standards in Contract Packaging & Manufacturing

Established in 1992, the Contract Packaging Association (CPA) is the national, non-profit trade organization dedicated to promoting the growth and welfare of firms in the Contract Packaging / Manufacturing industry and related businesses. We offer exposure and programs designed to foster growth within our member firms.

Explore Our RFQ Tool

A Century of Expertise in Consumer Product Manufacturing

The Co-Packing Network is a comprehensive national Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) advisory group deeply rooted in the diverse US and Canadian consumer product manufacturing industries. Celebrating our 100-year anniversary, our expansive history spans supermarkets, wholesaling, manufacturing, owning brands, and beyond.

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The CPA's Request for Quote (RFQ) tool allows an automated submission to CPA Members to securely submit their project details and needs. Your Request for Quote will be dispatched to CPA Members whose capabilities match your project needs, and if they can assist you, will contact you directly about their services and capabilities.

The team manages the request all-the-way through to end up with successful results. We also can become a project manager to manage the whole process (search, secure and work with one or more contract manufacturers).

CONTRACT MANUFACTURING ALLIANCE

The Contract Manufacturing Alliance's founders have over 30-years in the consumer products space and are available to help brand groups with their manufacturing and launch needs (start-up, emerging and established).
Recruiting Industry Partners: The The Contract Manufacturing Alliance is recruiting industry partners to join them in helping start-up and emerging brands get into manufacturing relationships as well eventually, launch partner needs.

We are talking with contract manufacturers, pilot plants, food innovation centers, colleges and universities, commercial kitchens, food scientists, distributors, trade associations, ingredient distributors, packaging groups, sales brokers, funding groups and others to join us help start-up and emerging brands.

Our family has been involved within the consumer product industry (US based manufacturing, retailing, distribution) since the early 1920’s. From the first generation to the latest, our best practices have been handed down over time leading to a long legacy of successes in the business (manufacturing, retailing, distribution and more).

1920'S - 1940'S 1950'S - 1960'S 1970'S - 1980'S 1990'S - 2000'S 2000'S - TODAY

Some of Our Successes, Shark Tank and More:

The Conzumables Team has been helping start-up and emerging brands since 2008. We have a long list of successes including being involved with over 40 brands seen on Shark Tank.
  • been helping start-up and emerging brands since 2008. The team comes from the largest food companies on the planet (Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg’s and Conagra).
  • We have offices in Las Vegas, NV; Honolulu, HI; Dallas, TX and Raleigh, NC.
  • We have internal and external sales offices and partners.
  • We have our own TV shows as well