Integrated care coordination: closing gaps in healthcare
Rising healthcare costs are often the result of fragmented care, missed follow-ups, and misaligned services. Integrated care coordination connects medical, behavioral, pharmacy, and social supports into a single, cohesive approach, helping employers reduce avoidable utilization while improving outcomes and member experience. By aligning care teams, data, and interventions around the whole person, employers can close critical gaps in care and achieve more sustainable, value-driven healthcare.
What is integrated care coordination?
Integrated care coordination aligns medical, behavioral, pharmacy, and social services to support individuals across the full continuum of care. Instead of operating in silos, care teams share information, coordinate interventions, and proactively address gaps that can lead to poor outcomes and unnecessary cost. For employers, this approach helps simplify the care experience for members while reducing fragmentation, duplication, and avoidable utilization.
Why integration matters for cost containment
Healthcare costs rise when care is fragmented, leading to duplicated services, missed follow-ups, and avoidable high-cost utilization. Integrated care coordination helps contain costs by aligning providers, data, and interventions across the care continuum, so issues are addressed earlier and more efficiently. For employers, this results in better use of healthcare resources, fewer preventable escalations, and more predictable, sustainable cost management without sacrificing outcomes or member experience.
Fragmented care contributes to unnecessary hospitalizations and duplicative services , which drives avoidable costs and utilization.
The cost of fragmented care
Fragmented care creates cost by allowing small gaps to become expensive failures. Missed follow-ups, uncoordinated treatment plans, and disconnected providers often lead to duplicated services, preventable emergency visits, and avoidable hospitalizations. For employers, this fragmentation drives higher medical spend, greater variability in utilization, and limited visibility into what is improving outcomes versus what is simply adding cost.
90% of the nation’s $4.9 trillion in annual health care expenditures are for people with chronic and mental health conditions. These conditions often require ongoing, multi-disciplinary support, making them especially vulnerable to breakdowns in fragmented systems. When medical, behavioral, pharmacy, and social needs are not coordinated, costs escalate through repeated interventions, avoidable complications, and unnecessary acute care. Integrated care coordination helps address these challenges by proactively managing complex needs, closing gaps earlier, and reducing the downstream costs associated with unmanaged or poorly connected care.
Building a connected healthcare ecosystem
For employers, building a connected healthcare ecosystem means moving beyond standalone solutions toward a more comprehensive, coordinated approach to care. Comprehensive care offers a new path forward by integrating medical, behavioral, pharmacy, and social supports into a unified experience that reduces fragmentation and improves care navigation. This approach helps employers drive more consistent outcomes, reduce inefficiencies, and support a healthcare experience that works better for members and the organizations that serve them.
Tackling gaps in care across the healthcare ecosystem
Gaps in care often occur when services, data, and care teams operate in silos across the healthcare ecosystem. Integrating medical, pharmacy, and behavioral health data is essential to helping individuals achieve whole health. Connecting these insights enables earlier identification of unmet needs, more coordinated interventions, and fewer breakdowns in care. For employers, this level of integration supports better outcomes, improved care navigation, and reduced avoidable cost.
How connected care enhances chronic care management
Chronic care management is more effective when care is connected across settings and specialties. By improving health outcomes and providing value-based care, coordinated approaches support earlier intervention, better adherence to treatment plans, and fewer avoidable hospitalizations. For employers, connected care helps stabilize long-term conditions, reduce high-cost utilization, and deliver more consistent outcomes over time.
Cost containment through smarter care coordination
Smarter care coordination helps contain healthcare costs by reducing fragmentation, improving care alignment, and addressing needs earlier in the care journey. Better care and better costs are linked when providers and care teams share data, coordinate interventions, and focus on the whole person. For employers, this results in fewer duplicative services, lower avoidable utilization, and more predictable cost performance, while still improving outcomes and member experience.
The value for employers
Integrated care coordination helps employers manage healthcare costs more effectively while improving outcomes and the member experience. By aligning medical, behavioral, pharmacy, and social supports, employers can reduce avoidable utilization, gain clearer insight into cost drivers, and support more consistent, whole-person care. The result is a more predictable, value-driven healthcare strategy that works for both organizations and their people.
“Care coordination that truly connects across medical, behavioral, and social domains unlocks better outcomes and more predictable cost performance for employers,” says Pete Haytaian, President, Carelon. “It’s not just about linking services. It’s about aligning care to what works best for the whole person.”