Competition and integration in health care reform

There is a growing but still fragile understanding that competition and integration are not necessarily in conflict and can be used together. In one version, this might mean using competition to drive improvements in performance in planned care, and promoting integration to do so in relation to unpl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chris Ham
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ubiquity Press 2012-06-01
Series:International Journal of Integrated Care
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ijic.org/articles/965
Description
Summary:There is a growing but still fragile understanding that competition and integration are not necessarily in conflict and can be used together. In one version, this might mean using competition to drive improvements in performance in planned care, and promoting integration to do so in relation to unplanned care and care for people with complex needs. In another, it entails arguing that competition between integrated systems might offer the best of all worlds, if policies can be designed to support evolution in that direction.  This paper suggests that a bundle of policy interventions is needed to support the evolution of integrated systems of care. It examines how policies might be crafted to make this happen; How to avoid the wrong kind of integration to develop; and, how can policy makers enable 'competition' between integrated systems.
ISSN:1568-4156