IT is seen as the means to develop healthcare and social welfare services for citizens and to improve the quality of medical and social welfare data. This is deemed to require better IT cooperation between organizations. My research investigates the formation of voluntary inter-organizational IT governance in healthcare and social welfare IT engaging over 100 organizations. Attention is placed especially on the perceived benefits of IT governance. Results suggest that concrete benefits are necessary for the formation of inter-organizational IT governance arrangements. The anticipated benefits of patient data improvement and short-term benefits were evaluated more important than the expected long-term improvements of healthcare and social welfare reforms.