The Health Secretary has promised "a revolution" in the way people are cared for by the NHS and local authorities.
Proposed legislation will compel health boards and councils to work together to address the needs of people in their areas, MSPs heard at Holyrood.
Social care is handled by councils and health by NHS boards but this has led to arguments over who should fund and provide care, particularly in cases where people's problems are caused by multiple health and social factors.
The Integration of Adult Health and Social Care Bill will establish joint governance and accountability measures to make health boards and councils work together.
Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said the Scottish Government is "light on vision and ambition" and has yet to reveal how it will integrate the competing priorities of health boards and councils.
Health Secretary Alex Neil said: "Our current system of health and social care still incorporates within it barriers in terms of structures, professional territories, silos, governance arrangements and financial management. Often these have no helpful bearing on the needs of the large, growing group of service users, many of whom have multiple health and social care needs."
He added: "We will remove community health partnerships from the statute book and establish in their place health and social care partnerships to provide an environment of joint governance, joint accountability and integrated oversight of service delivery. This is a revolution in the delivery of health and social care in Scotland."
Ms Baillie said she is disappointed with the Government's answer to integration of health and social care.
"It was light on vision and ambition. It was all about structures and governance. The focus on older people and adults appears to be a secondary consideration in the tussle for control. Although it is a regrettably pale imitation of the early ambition of the Government, we will work with them to try and get this right," she said.
Conservative MSP Nanette Milne said one of the barriers to integration is the cultural difference between health professionals and social workers, illustrated by segregated training, rivalries in some areas and a perception of "medical dominance".
