Health Care Price Variation Spurs Reference-based Benefit Design Programs
Shi Y, Amill-Rosario A, Rudin RS, Fischer SH, Shekelle P, Scanlon D, Damberg CL
The adoption and use of health information technology (IT) by health systems in ambulatory care can be an important driver of care quality. Using longitudinal data (2014-2016) from the HIMSS Analytics annual surveys, the authors examined recent trends in health IT adoption by health system-affiliated ambulatory clinics (N= 17,861 ambulatory clinics affiliated with 1,711 health systems) in the context of the federal government’s Meaningful Use and Promoting Interoperability programs.
Specifically, they examined the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), as well as 16 specific functionalities, at the clinic and system levels and compared the differential trends of adoption by various characteristics of health systems. While the adoption of an EHR certified by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) increased from 73% to 91%, only 38% of clinics in 2016 reported having all 16 health IT functionalities included in this study.
The authors also found that small health systems lag behind large systems in ambulatory health IT adoption and that patient-facing functionalities were less likely to be adopted than those oriented toward physicians. Moreover, health information exchange capabilities are still low among ambulatory clinics, underscoring the importance of the ONC’s Promoting Interoperability initiative.
Overall, the relatively low uptake of health IT functionalities important to care improvement suggests substantial opportunities for further improving adoption of ambulatory health IT even among the current EHR users.
Shi Y, Amill-Rosario A, Rudin RS, Fischer SH, Shekelle P, Scanlon D, Damberg CL. Health information technology for ambulatory care in health systems. The American journal of managed care. 2020 Jan;26(1):32.
