Integrated by Another Name

There’s a lot of buzz around Big Tech eating healthcare’s lunch. Amazon and One Medical is the latest tech foray into healthcare that consolidates the market. CVS is looking to expand its primary care offerings through SignifyHealth. But they aren’t the first — UnitedHealth has been quietly gobbling up clinics across the nation.

Payors — be they traditional health insurance, or Big Tech — are realizing that profitability in healthcare is achieved by owning both ends of the healthcare equation. Being both payor and provider.

Remind you of anyone? Kaiser has been doing this from its inception and has blossomed into regional integrated delivery networks (IDNs).

It’s amusing to see tech and insurance “innovate” its way to an old model that Kaiser has been efficiently perfecting. They can boast an omni-channel healthcare experience all they want, but don’t label it innovative.

They are just getting started with becoming integrated, and, that’s a good thing. IDNs fall under the umbrella of accountable care organizations, which use value-based care models to deliver care. That means more dollars saved by promoting preventative primary care, rather than expensive fee-for-service models from before.

The litmus test characterizing these hopeful IDNs will center on who those dollars saved will be used for - for patients, or for shareholders?