Payer Strategy & Networks

Payer strategy coverage this week centered on insurer consolidation and vertical integration—especially payer ownership of physician practices—as a growing flashpoint for network access, referral steering, and provider bargaining power, with implications for ACO alignment and independent practice participation in VBC contracts (Becker’s ASC). At the same time, employer-sponsored insurance cost pressure and renewed scrutiny of whether insurers drive system dysfunction are intensifying demand for benefit designs and networks that prove affordability without simply narrowing access or shifting risk to patients ([KFF](https://connect.kff.org/e3t/Ctc/RB+113/c1ThL04/MWS86Br