HIMSS: MU & ACOs—Necessary, but not sufficient

NEW ORLEANS—Meaningful Use (MU) certified technology is the starting point, but not the goal, for healthcare transformation, said Karen M. Bell, MD, chair, Certification Commission for Health IT, during a March 3 educational session at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference.

Providers need to understand that MU certification covers federal requirements but does not ensure or extend to address their needs as healthcare transitions into new models, such as accountable care organizations (ACOs).  

Culture and health IT both need to change to enable this transformation, said Bell. The good news and the bad news are the same: the federal government has given providers more autonomy (and more responsibility) in new patient care models, which includes ACOs.

The shift applies to multiple organizations. The 32 Pioneer ACOs will need to have alternative payment arrangements in place at the end of three years, and similar requirements exist for state-based and payer-based models.

However, syncing these requirements with MU is an imperfect fit, according to Bell. For example, requirements such as patient engagement, processes to report on quality and costs and processes to coordinate care and promote evidence-based medicine are lacking in the current MU certification processes.

The most important missing link between the status quo and healthcare transformation is integration, according to Bell. Clinical, financial and operational systems need to be integrated to perform essential tasks such as identifying high-cost patients, she explained.

“One of the biggest problems ACOs will face is the lack of understanding of what we need financial systems to do. MU will not fulfill this need. Healthcare needs to go beyond MU [to transform itself],” she cautioned.