It’s the math that will likely bring more emphasis on whole person care models and integrated care in 2027. Analysts are forecasting a 9% increase in health plan costs in the year ahead (see Anticipating The Tide) – and among the many strategies to blunt that increase, health plans are likely to pursue focused programming for high-cost consumers (see Sweeping Back The Tide). Provider organizations serving the two most likely cohorts of high-cost consumers – those with co-occurring chronic conditions (both behavioral and medical) and consumers with conditions requiring emerging (and high-cost) therapies – are seeing an increased use in performance-based and value-based reimbursement arrangements.

But to make those models work, access to primary…