Integrated Care

Integrated care involves coordinating the delivery of all types of health services, including physical, dental and mental health, and community-based services. This approach works best when overseen by a single health care provider who has an established and trusted relationship with the patient.

The Cost of Health Care Chaos
The U.S. health care system delivers disjointed care, and often mediocre results, at a premium price. Typically, patients have no single provider to recommend and coordinate multiple sources of care. There is no one to ensure all of the providers are working in concert for the best patient care, avoiding overlap or, worse yet, contradictory treatments leading to acute episodes. And from the provider's perspective, lack of coordination often results in inefficiencies and out-of-control costs. This fragmented system is difficult to access and navigate for patients. The problem is magnified for patients who have multiple chronic conditions or who face language or societal barriers, or other challenges such as age, income or ethnicity. The problem also is magnified for the doctors who treat them.

The move to an integrated model of care requires the following components:

• Care coordination across all elements of the health care system and the patient's community including family, public and community-based services
• Family caregivers and community support, such as mental health services, prevention and self-management programs, long-term care services, social services and schools
• A medical home that takes primary responsibility for coordinating the vast majority of the patient's care across the health care continuum
• Information systems that encourage information sharing, quality improvement and population-based health monitoring

Our Focus
To achieve integrated care in Colorado's health care system, we use our resources to support projects and efforts that work to:

• Promote and support the adoption of medical homes and integrated care in clinics and in communities
• Support programs that increase the number of medical, dental, and mental health professionals that work in an integrated primary care environment
• Advocate for changes in provider reimbursement that encourage the delivery of integrated care, since the current system does not adequately reimburse for integrated care