A notable healthcare trend is the rapid rise of Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs) in accountable care. Children’s Health System of Texas just announced its new system structure as a clinically integrated pediatric health system. Ascension Health and CHE Trinity Health recently announced a clinical integration partnership that has the potential to reach three-quarters of patients in Michigan. EvergreenHealth also launched the first CIN in the Puget Sound region earlier this year.

The growth in CINs is being driven by the shift to value-based reimbursement. Payers and employers favor providers that can deliver high-quality care in an efficient manner, and clinical integration enables collaboration among independent providers to meet that requirement. These independent physicians, hospitals and other providers now share responsibility for the care of patients across the community, and must share patient information to fulfill that responsibility.

Enter population health management as a new solution to help with the coordination, collaboration, and measurement of quality among a community’s providers. Although CINs have typically invested in an electronic medical records system (EMRs), they are still unable to manage the health of populations because EMRs are usually designed for only single-patient interactions. Accountable care and value-based reimbursement demand systems that manage health across populations outside of episodic care in clinical settings. Organizations need comprehensive health histories and need information at the point-of-care to help make better clinical decisions.

As CINs mature and evolve, their story ultimately leads to population health management. To learn more about this topic, sign up for our whitepaper entitled ‘Clinically Integrated Networks and Population Health: Taking the Next Step’.