If you believed what you hear in the news, you would think that all change in healthcare will cease with a negative supreme court decision.   And if you are leading a healthcare agency and believe that then you are being left behind.  There is radical change occurring from community clinics to hospitals to insurers.  Insurers testified last week before the Senate Finance Committee to the enormous progress their integrated and coordinated models are making in regions throughout country.

As providers attempt to find their niche, those that hoped their niche was in merging or being acquired are rapidly finding out that that is just the beginning. Others are creating unique and experimental partnerships.

I have had a remarkable journey led by a community clinic and partnering with hospitals to rethink the spaces in between them.  The joint responsibility for patient transitions, for navigation, for coaching patients is not only seen in the HIT expansion but in new care coordination roles and RN roles.  Joint venture approaches to afterhours and urgent care are exciting.  Joint efforts to avoid duplication of testing between hospitals based on shared quality standards could produce real savings.

The automation of risk triggers and patient monitoring will drive down unnecessary hospital visits for a significant population of chronically ill patients.  The model embraced by these partners is wholistic and flexible; focused on the strengths of the past and the opportunities to look at care differently and more broadly; less really is more!