A recent study by Humana shows that health payers can save money if emergency departments have access to community health information exchanges (HIEs), writes FierceHealthIT editor Ken Terry.
When emergency department (ED) physicians at 10 Milwaukee hospitals accessed patients' medical histories in the Wisconsin Health Information Exchange (WHIE) at the point of care, the patients' visits cost Humana $29 less per ED visit, on average, than did a visit by patients whose doctors did not have access to that information, according to the study. Much of the savings came from a cutback in redundant testing, notes Terry.
What's more, the researchers found significant drops in costs in four of the top five ED-based procedures, including CT scans, EKGs, laboratory testing, and radiology, when ED physicians consulted the WHIE database. --Read the full article at FierceHealthIT