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Editor's note: This article is the first in a two-part series. Next month, we'll discuss steps that you should take when you carry out a managed care exit strategy. It's a solution for only those who fit a fairly specific profile, but some providers will find that they can relieve themselves of managed care headaches and still maintain the same level of business. "I felt that in certain markets, and given the circumstances of the payer and employer market, providers could do just as well outside the structure of managed care and retain their patients," says Thomas M. Cooper, principal of Cooper Consulting in Ohio.