[1] The guiding business model and philosophical goal of the IDN is to serve as a self-contained healthcare ecosystem, with the ability to contain the entirety of the patient experience to coordinate care and manage population health.
[citation needed] Five factors that can be used to assess the advancement level of a particular IDN include provider alignment, continuum of care, regional presence, clinical integration, and reimbursement.
[5] Between 2013 and 2017, healthcare providers created 11 new integrated delivery systems from joint ventures with insurance companies.
[6] Some insurance companies have invested in primary care, particularly UnitedHealthcare, which runs a provider subsidiary, OptumCare.
[7] Alain Enthoven, the Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management, at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, argues that IDSs align incentives and resources better than most healthcare delivery systems, leading to improved medical care quality while controlling costs.