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Tracking the Changing Provider Landscape
Implications for Health Policy and Practice
Throughout the 1990s health care providers were interested in developing organized delivery systems. However, industry observers have increasingly questioned the sense of these efforts. Using an established taxonomy of health networks and systems, these authors examined whether there was a nationwide trend away from the vertical and horizontal arrangements that serve as the backbone to organized delivery systems. Studying 1994-1998, they found that both health networks and systems became less centralized in their hospital services, physician arrangements, and insurance product development. They did not find a general pathway to disintegration but instead found considerable experimentation in organizational form.