Your finding that integrated systems have significantly lower friction than network-model plans is spot on but I think the gap is even bigger than the index shows.
The Friction Index captures what hits the patient and the plan but it can't see the friction that hits the provider side. The admin hours spent chasing authorizations, the calls to wrong departments, the peer-to-peer reviews that take several attempts to schedule. These data points are never registered in CMS data, so the index can't pick it up.
In an integrated system, that invisible work gets absorbed internally. But in a network-model plan, it falls entirely on the hospital or clinic and just disappears.
Because of these data points that often don't get measured ,the real gap is probably even larger!
Thanks Clif. The data led me in a direction I wasn't expecting.
Terrific analysis!
Great analysis !!!
Your finding that integrated systems have significantly lower friction than network-model plans is spot on but I think the gap is even bigger than the index shows.
The Friction Index captures what hits the patient and the plan but it can't see the friction that hits the provider side. The admin hours spent chasing authorizations, the calls to wrong departments, the peer-to-peer reviews that take several attempts to schedule. These data points are never registered in CMS data, so the index can't pick it up.
In an integrated system, that invisible work gets absorbed internally. But in a network-model plan, it falls entirely on the hospital or clinic and just disappears.
Because of these data points that often don't get measured ,the real gap is probably even larger!