Integration Takes Managed Care in Different Directions: Horizontal, Vertical, and Beyond

a full range of health care services from neonatology to geriatric long-term care. Proponents of managed care describe seamless systems offering a coordinated continuum of health care services that is more econòmical and of higher quality than boutique-style medicine that was prevalent under the traditional indemnity insurance system. Some industry observers predicted the ernergence of "super meds," a halfdozen or so prominent health care corpQrations that would dominate the industry