An integrated delivery system (IDS), also known as integrated delivery network (IDN), is a

health system A health system, health care system or healthcare system is an organization of people, institutions, and resources that delivers health care services to meet the health needs of target populations. There is a wide variety of health systems aroun ...

with a goal of logical integration of the delivery (provision) of

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

as opposed to a fragmented system or a disorganized lack of system. The term has sometimes been used in a broad

sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditio ...

with reference to

managed care In the United States, managed care or managed healthcare is a group of activities intended to reduce the cost of providing health care and providing health insurance while improving the quality of that care. It has become the predominant system o ...

in general (as opposed to

fee-for-service Fee-for-service (FFS) is a payment model where services are unbundled and paid for separately. In health care, it gives an incentive for physicians to provide more treatments because payment is dependent on the quantity of care, rather than qualit ...

care), but in the United States it now more often refers to any specific network of health care organizations constituting a

corporate group A corporate group, company group or business group, also formally known as a group of companies, is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. These types of gr ...

that attempts to integrate care to some degree (that is, to coordinate the patient journey across care transitions). Some IDSs have an

HMO In the United States, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee. It is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded heal ...

component, while others are a network of physicians only, or of

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

s and

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

s. Thus, the term is used broadly to define an organization that provides a continuum of health care services.

Background

The guiding business model and philosophical goal of the IDN is to serve as a self-contained healthcare ecosystem, with the ability to contain the entirety of the patient experience to coordinate care and manage population health. Examples of IDNs include Highmark Health,

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP) is an American integrated delivery system, integrated managed care consortium headquartered in Oakland, California. Founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield, Sidney R. Garfield, the ...

, UPMC,

Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...

Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Academic health science center, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an O ...

Geisinger Health System Geisinger Health System (GHS) is a regional health care provider to central, south-central and northeastern Pennsylvania. Headquartered in Danville, Pennsylvania, Geisinger services over 3 million patients in 45 counties. Geisinger operates ten ...

Jefferson Health Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Inc, branded as Jefferson Health, is a multi-state non-profit health system whose flagship hospital is Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City Philadelphia. The health system's hospitals serve ...

, and

Intermountain Healthcare Intermountain Health (formerly Intermountain Healthcare) is a United States Non-profit organization, not-for-profit Health care, healthcare system with 385 clinics and 33 hospitals in the Intermountain West (primarily Colorado, Idaho, Montana, N ...

. Five factors that can be used to assess the advancement level of a particular IDN include provider alignment, continuum of care, regional presence, clinical integration, and reimbursement. Between 2013 and 2017, healthcare providers created 11 new integrated delivery systems from joint ventures with insurance companies. Some insurance companies have invested in primary care, particularly UnitedHealthcare, which runs a provider subsidiary, OptumCare.

Reception

Alain Enthoven Alain C. Enthoven (born September 10, 1930) is an American economist. He was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965, and from 1965 to 1969, he was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis. Currently, he is Marriner ...

, the Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management, at the

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Graduate School of Business, argues that IDSs align incentives and resources better than most healthcare delivery systems, leading to improved medical care quality while controlling costs. Consolidation among IDNs in the United States has critics who say these networks may actually be trending the cost curve upward. An interview of health insurers regarding Partner's Healthcare proposed acquisition of the Care New England Health System, for example, exposed the trepidation insurers have regarding IDN leverage over payers.(Feb. 4, 2018
“Market Impact Review: Partners HealthCare’s proposed acquisition of the Care New England Health System”
Bailit Health. Retrieved 2019-1-15.

Vendors

* ICA (HIT)

References

{{reflist Medical and health organizations based in the United States Managed care

Background

Reception

Vendors

See also

References