Most providers have no strategy for accountable care

Despite an increased effort to tie provider reimbursement to quality metrics and overall cost of care reduction, fewer than 25 percent of providers have a defined strategy around accountable care, according to an Essentials Brief from HIMSS Analytics.

The research firm surveyed 563 IT executives in the ambulatory space on the current health IT landscape and examined their plans around accountable care and health information exchange (HIE).

“With the market generally favorable towards HIEs, there appears to be a fairly notable degree of uncertainty surrounding accountable care plans,” according to the study. Instead, the organizations remain focused on meeting Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 criteria, but the study shows that the majority have yet to attest.

Survey results also revealed that both practice management and EHR markets are not as widespread in independent ambulatory environments compared to hospital-owned settings. However, universal adoption appears on the horizon. Also, vendor preferences varied depending on the organizational structure of the ambulatory facility.

A relatively low level of solution replacements currently are happening in the practice management and EHR markets, suggesting that ambulatory practices plan to stick with their current vendor to help them meet the different stages of MU criteria, according to the study.