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Integrated care (also known as coordinated care, collaborative care, and seamless care, among other terms) is a modern model of health care delivery based on the reported benefits of collaboration between different providers and services in improving care delivery, access, and outcomes. This model can be executed in a variety of ways, including through affiliations and partnerships between providers and organizations, as well as through mergers and acquisitions.

Similar to other areas of business, integration occurs horizontally (for example, a hospital merging with another hospital) as well as vertically (for example, a hospital system buying a nursing home, ambulatory care practice, or health insurance company).

The popularity of integrated care has grown since the start of the 21st century. National and local governments, as well as international organizations such as the World Health Organization, have widely encouraged movements to integrated care, in many cases leveraging publicly funded health care systems. Even the United States, the only developed country without universal healthcare, is able to encourage privately owned health systems to adopt efficient integration practices by placing monetary incentives in its government health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which made up 45% of its national healthcare spending in 2022.

Controversy has been prevalent, with skepticism pointed toward some health system's methods and ultimate goals, criticism of the involvement and aims of private equity, and concerns about monopolization with regards to especially large health systems.

History

Some scholars attribute the beginnings of integrated care to Hippocrates, who in 430 BCE said "the body must be treated as a whole and not just a series of parts." However, most serious discussion about execution of this on a large scale began in the 1900s, and implementation across the healthcare industry accelerated in the beginning of the 21st century.

In the 2000s, scattered health systems and governments were beginning to adopt separate loosely associated policies and ideas which would eventually contribute toward a larger movement. By the 2010s, research into the benefits of integration and the methods through which it should be achieved was scarce.

• The second largest, and the largest publicly-run, is the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, which as of 2023 owned 172 hospitals.

See also

• Population health
• Social determinants of health