ReviewPortuguese journal of public health2026
Vertical Integration in Healthcare Systems: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
Review in Portuguese journal of public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Vertical integration is being implemented in various health systems to improve quality, accessibility, and efficiency. This article seeks to further existing research on vertical integration by introducing the type of health system as a new perspective to better understand how it relates to healthcare integration. Method: Articles in English were searched in Web of Science and Scopus from 2014 to 2024 using the following terms: "Vertical Integration", "Hospital care", "Primary care", "Tertiary care", "Health care", "Social care", "Price", "Cost", "Quality", "Efficiency", "Access". Relevant areas for the research were selected. PRISMA was used to improve the reporting quality of our work, and the STROBE matrix was used for assessing the completeness of the selected articles. Results: From an initial pool of 157 articles, 18 met the inclusion criteria after screening and full-text analysis. Among these, thirteen studies focused on private health systems, four on national health systems, and one on a national health insurance system. Patterns observed indicate that in private health systems, vertical integration can be associated with increased market concentration, which may lead to higher prices and potential negative effects. Conversely, in national health systems, vertical integration might be linked to improvements in quality, access, and efficiency. Evidence regarding vertical integration in national health insurance systems remains limited and inconclusive. Conclusion: The results of vertical integration appear to vary according to the type of health system. While private systems may face challenges related to market power and cost increases, national health systems show potential benefits in service quality and efficiency. However, these conclusions are based on a narrative synthesis of heterogeneous studies. Due to scarce data, further research is needed to clarify the results of vertical integration within national health insurance systems.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.