Integrating data from out-of-network providers was the top HIT challenge for accountable care organizations (ACOs) in a new survey from the eHealth Initiative (eHI) and Premier.
Of the 68 responding ACOs, nearly 70 percent reported great difficulty in integrating data from specialists, particularly those that were out-of-network. The more doctors a patient sees in various care settings, the less likely all their data will make it back to the primary care team, according to an announcement on the survey. Forty-eight percent reported no integration with long-term and post-acute care settings, and 46 percent had no links to palliative and hospice facilities.
Within their own organizations, however, ACOs are capturing and using data from various sources to identify gaps in care (84 percent), spot outliers in cost/utilization (80 percent), compare clinician performance (77 percent), measure/report on quality (77 percent) and identify areas of potential risk (68 percent). These sources include claims data (96 percent) and clinical data from electronic health records or other quality measurement systems (76 percent).
ACOs most commonly used technologies were electronic health records and care management software. Nearly half of ACOs use other tools for population health management, including integrated claims and clinical databases (48 percent) or a population health dashboard (44 percent) that providers can use to visually compare performance. However, just 26 percent of ACOs incorporate telemedicine technology and just 16 percent use remote monitoring tools for care management outside of clinical settings.
More ACOs are using EHRs as a central part of their strategy and have improved care for Medicare beneficiaries and saved money, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported. In June it finalized a rule to require ACOs to describe in their applications how they will use health IT to boost care coordination.
To learn more:
- here's the survey report (.pdf)
- read the announcement