Decreasing -or, at least, containing- costs is one of the most important values usually attributed to health services integration. In this post published in the Harvard Medical School website, cost containing is questioned according to a paper published in JAMA Internal Medicine, where researchers describe how anual outpatient spending has grown in some integrated areas by 3.1 percentage point even when changes in use of outpatient care were minimal.

In this text, the author hypothesizes that integration between physicians and hospitals turn their position with insurers stronger, specially for prices of outpatient care. Health care integration may, in some situations, promote positions of power in the market, so that could have an influence in price negotiation and healthcare spending.

This unexpected cost increasing should be considered when designing integrated care policies and incentives, in order to avoid unintended spending cost that could threaten the sustainability of integrated health services.