Why the best integrated health care systems are built for health care’s future

Facing uncertainty and rapid change today, even the best health care systems with integrated care programs will need to adapt quickly to keep delivering on the promise of value-based care.

Speaking at the Fifth Virtual Value-Based Payment Summit, Stephen Parodi, MD, executive vice president of External Affairs, Communications, and Brand for The Permanente Federation, talked about the ways an integrated, coordinated approach to patient care can provide the flexibility needed today.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty, which is injecting the need for thinking about this need for efficiency and need for care delivery models that allow for population-based health at scale and doing that on a much more rapid basis,” said Dr. Parodi.

How integrated care coordination speeds up innovation

With demand for telehealth and e-visits booming in recent years, Dr. Parodi raised the challenges of patients finding the right care quickly and being redirected to multiple resources. Responding to this issue and to clinical team feedback, The Permanente Medical Group in Northern California built an AI-powered Point of Contact Resolution system, known as POCR, to more efficiently triage patients and minimize unnecessary escalations.

Analysis of patient interactions showed that half were related to non-clinical questions and around a million involved UTIs and URIs that could be addressed effectively through e-visits. The medical group then collaborated on redesigning venues and creating a system for on-demand video visits to get patients to the right care faster.

This initiative is a powerful example how coordinated care makes it easier to build and implement patient-centered innovations while also creating efficiencies in care delivery.

“That’s an example of responding to the market, responding to physician and clinician actual input — because of course they were getting frustrated by patients bouncing around and not getting the problem taken care of — and also engaging with the clinical teams to actually design some of these systems,” said Dr. Parodi. “That’s what an integrated model looks like.”

Related health care innovation story: AI-powered patient portal enhances access, safety, and patient satisfaction

The advantage of integrated care in Medicare’s future

To address the increasingly complex picture for Medicare Advantage, the conversation turned to how coordinated care systems in the market are approaching recent upheavals. The capacity of these organizations will be challenged by more people seeking access because of rapid growth of older populations and by other health care systems exiting Medicare markets. This will be compounded by pressure from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to constrain costs.

Dr. Parodi highlighted how integration of services helps align incentives and goals across Kaiser Permanente, such as efforts to streamline care delivery, payment, and administration while maintaining quality.

“For Kaiser Permanente, the advantage that we have is that we can talk about this as a system,” said Dr. Parodi. “We can look at this again on the care delivery side and think about what efficiencies need to exist to provide good care to these patients.”

Related Medicare story: Kaiser Permanente among the nation’s best for treatment, prevention, patient experience

Prompted to name the biggest requirement for maintaining integrated care that creates value, Dr. Parodi put forward physician leadership as a cornerstone to delivering efficient, high-quality care.

“You can’t get there without the clinical buy-in, the expertise, the innovation, and the passion,” said Dr. Parodi. “Without that, you can have all the wonderful guidelines in the world, and you won’t get there.”

Watch the archived panel on the Virtual Value-Based Payment Summit site.