Are Health Plans Your New Competition?

The distinction between the organizations that provide services and the organizations that manage financial risk for a population has typically been quite clear—until recently. There were, of course, exceptions (the Kaiser and Geisinger systems, for example), but for most of the health and human service field, the lines were clear. Provider or insurer. In fact, just a decade or so ago, there were concerns about the "conflict of interest" in crossing that line.

But the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) ushered in new thinking about holding provider organizations accountable for population health spending in the form of . . .