Survey: Large practices planning on EHR enhancements to boost value-based care

Large practices are increasingly more satisfied with their electronic health record (EHR) vendors and products and plan on implementing updates this year to optimize those systems to assist in value-based reimbursement.

The survey by Black Book also found that interoperability and training are areas where the most practices see room for improvement.

84 percent of surveyed practices with 25 clinicians or more reported their EHR vendor is meeting or exceeding their expectations, a big swing from the 2013 survey, when 92 percent responded that they were displeased with their vendors. 88 percent also believed their practice management or EHR software has resulted in noticeable improvements in their operations or finances.

The survey results included rankings of vendors based on client satisfaction. Allscripts topped the list among provider groups with more than 25 physicians for the third straight year.

Smaller practices, however, aren’t reporting the same success with these systems, according to Black Book.

“Smaller practices are disadvantaged in terms of health IT resources, and expected to merge or form joint ventures to meet the challenge of value-based care and acquiring the IT infrastructure needed to support it," said Doug Brown, managing partner at Black Book.  "Black Book expects that most small- and medium-sized practices will eventually join larger organizations, such as independent practice associations (IPAs), accountable care organizations (ACOs), and bigger medical groups to be successful under MACRA."  

The most common problems practices complained about revolved around interoperability and training. A third of respondents said systems were impacted by lack of interoperability with payers and other providers.  Another 29 percent said vendors have failed to streamline complex processes on training and implementing new systems.