IFIC Forum Discussion on Finance

As part of our series of Forum Discussions on the Nine Pillars of Integrated Care, in which we explore international experiences of integrated care, this eighth Forum in the 2026 series focused on the Finance Pillar.

Integrated care without integrated finance can easily fall back into fragmentation, because funding flows, payment mechanisms and accountability structures often continue to reinforce organisational and sectoral boundaries. During this discussion, contributors explored how financing can either support or constrain integrated, people-centred care and reflected on the challenge of moving from isolated experiments towards sustainable change at scale.

The conversation examined the persistent “wrong pockets” problem, where one part of the system may need to invest while another benefits from the resulting savings. Speakers discussed the importance of creating mechanisms that allow resources, risks and gains to be shared across organisational and sectoral boundaries, while recognising that financial integration alone is not enough.

The discussion also explored the shift from paying for activity towards paying for value and outcomes, including the challenges of linking financial accountability with measures that matter to people, communities and systems. Trust, governance, leadership, data, organisational readiness and meaningful involvement of patients, families and communities were highlighted as essential conditions for making integrated financing approaches work in practice.

International examples and audience contributions brought further perspectives on capitation, outcomes-based funding, social value, access to information and the need for financing models to adapt as population needs change.

The Forum reinforced that finance is deeply interconnected with the other Nine Pillars of Integrated Care. Sustainable integrated care depends not only on how money is distributed, but on whether funding arrangements genuinely support collaboration, prevention, shared responsibility and better outcomes across the whole care journey.