Interorganizational relationships between community providers and a public sector case management program

Case management programs have been funded in the public sector for the past twenty year period. Although service integration was a primary goal of the case management demonstration projects, no empirical studies were conducted to analyze those factors which facilitated interorganizational relationships between community providers and the case management program. Since interorganizational relationships are integral to the success of the case management program, organizational set analysis was used in this survey to assess the intensity of the interorganizational relationships between a regional case management program and 116 health and social service providers in Philadelphia. This study found that comparative as well as intraorganizational variables influenced the intensity of the interorganizational relationship between the case management program and community providers. In particular, organizations which were affiliated with a parent corporation or organizations which received alternate operating resources from the Medicare and Medicaid programs had less intense relationships with the case management program. In contrast, organizations which had executives who held positions as officers in their professional associations had more intense relationships with the case management program. Organizational structure also influenced the intensity of the interorganizational relationship. Community providers which offered vertically integrated services had less intense relationships with the case management program than organizations which offered diversified services to clients, Moreover, diversified organizations that offered intensive services to clients had more formal agreements with the case management program and did not rely upon informal agreements to refer clients. Although the provision of similar products and competition for similar funds had no impact upon organizational intensity, the delivery of services to the same client market did affect interorganizational intensity. Organizations, however, did not have to reach consensus on operating policies or goals in order to develop an interorganizational relationship with the case management program