Association of Informal Clinical Integration of Physicians With Cardiac Surgery Payments.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

To reduce inefficiency and waste associated with care fragmentation, many current programs target greater clinical integration among physicians. However, these programs have led to only modest Medicare spending reductions. Most programs focus on formal integration, which often bears little resemblance to actual physician interaction patterns.

Objectives

To examine how physician interaction patterns vary between health systems and to assess whether variation in informal integration is associated with care delivery payments.

Design, setting, and participants

National Medicare data from January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2011, identified 253 545 Medicare beneficiaries (aged ≥66 years) from 1186 health systems where Medicare beneficiaries underwent coronary

SUBMITTER: Funk RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5970003 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature