What is Clinical Integration?

Clinical integration provides the opportunity to build on the core strengths of clinical quality and service excellence to take healthcare delivery to a higher level of performance—top quality care at lower cost. The vehicle to achieve this is a clinically integrated physician network, combining physicians and physician groups with hospitals to create a true, clinically-integrated organization.

The Q-Link Physician Network clinical integration program is entirely physician driven and physician led. This collaborative effort spans the continuum of care, improving quality in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings. Clinical integration allows physicians to jointly negotiate with payers and employers on the basis of improved care and lower costs. Several physicians—representing primary care, medical, surgical and hospital-based specialties are working together on a collaborative basis to develop this clinically-integrated organization.

What is Clinical Integration?

Clinical integration (CI) is a physician-driven, physician-led, physician-managed and hospital-supported care delivery strategy. The focus of CI is to improve the quality of care across the continuum and reduce the cost of that care. Through participation in an effective and legally compliant CI program, independent physicians have the opportunity to contract collectively with fee-for-service payers and employers based on need and the ability to bring a new level of quality and efficiency to care delivery. Collectively-negotiated contracts under CI do not involve capitation or other forms of financial risk sharing. CI contracting seeks to negotiate physician fees and performance based incentive payments from fee-for-service payers and employers.

Who Benefits from Clinical Integration?

Simply put, everyone can benefit from this approach to healthcare delivery.

Patients
Patients receive greater consistency of high-quality care delivered from a trusted source—their physician—through better and more efficient communication between you, your colleagues and your patients.

Physicians
You can demonstrate your quality and efficiency to current and future patients, payers and employers and enter into physician-directed collaborative negotiations for “professional fees”, “pay-for-performance” and other contractual arrangements with health plans and employers in a way that financially recognizes your efforts.

Hospitals
Hospitals will have the opportunity to develop more collaborative relationships with medical staff, enlist physician support for quality initiatives and position itself at an advantage in the market on the basis of quality.