Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D.

Providers should expect to be paid exclusively through managed care systems by 2025, a former White House adviser said in July.

Accountable care organizations and other systems “are really now grown enough to provide … primary care to specialty care to hospital care to post-hospital care, whether it’s physical therapy or nursing facility or rehabilitation services,” Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., said in an interview with Reuters. Once they also have “the insurance function” — which he believes “they’re going to get” — these provider groups will be complete “integrated delivery systems.”

Insurers have alignment options with these provider groups, but they likely will resemble the current Kaiser Permanente managed care model, Ezekiel predicted.