Clinical Integration

What Is It?

Clinical integration is an active and ongoing program to evaluate and modify practice patterns of the network's physician participants and create a high degree of interdependence and cooperation among the physicians to control costs and ensure quality.

Participation in an effective clinical integration program will provide independent physicians the ability to contract collectively with payors without violating antitrust laws.

At Clarian, physicians have formed an organization called Clarian Quality Partners which will:

1. Identify and adopt clinical protocols for treatment of disease states
2. Develop systems to monitor compliance with the adopted protocols on an inpatient and outpatient basis
3. Collaborate with the hospital system to encourage compliance with inpatient performance improvement processes and protocols
4. Enter into physician-directed contractual and pay for performance arrangements with health plans, to provide a new product in the marketplace focused on value and best-practice delivery

Why Do It?

Fully implemented clinical integration benefits everyone in the community:

Patients

• Improved safety and quality of care
• Better access to latest proven techniques
• Streamlined interactions with health care system

Physicians

• Access to practice information around quality measures
• Access to latest in performance measurement standards
• Access to complete patient information
• Financial rewards for high-quality service delivery

Hospitals

• Improved clinical quality and patient safety
• Ability to manage costs
• Higher degree of effective collaboration

Insurers

• Higher subscriber satisfaction
• Cost efficiencies and savings
• Easy access to objective utilization data

Employers

• Containment of health care costs
• Healthier employees

Community

• Ability to maintain independent physician practices
• Better health care
• Ability to recruit medical talent to the area

Frequently Asked Questions

Download a PDF of Frequently Asked Questions created for physicians.

Contact Us About Clinical Integration

Email: Clarian Quality Partners

Links for More Information

Institute on Quality and Value

FTC information