Interoperability of HIEs still lacking
Most stakeholders are concerned with the progress of health information exchanges (HIEs) and pessimistic that health record connectivity will be achieved within the next few years, according to a Black Book survey.
The survey found that 86 percent of healthcare providers, 69 percent of health insurers and 81 percent of technology vendors described HIEs as persistently unpredictable. Black Book reported that 94 percent of providers, healthcare agencies, patients and payers said their EHR systems were unconnected.
However, 91 percent of payers and 94 percent of providers predicted a national HIE would be in place by 2025.
The survey included approximately 2,000 health plan members and patients, 800 independent and employed physicians, 700 hospital executives, 1,200 health insurers and 500 health IT vendors.
Ninety percent of hospital organizations and 94 percent of independent physicians said they were retreating from complex HIEs and were waiting to see if payers would pay for significant data-sharing mechanisms.
Further, 72 percent of the stakeholders predicted that small, independent HIEs would no longer be in existence by 2017.
In 2015, 72 percent of multi-provider networks and hospital systems said they were considering private HIEs to share patient data, up from 33 percent in 2013. In addition, 98 percent of the respondents said they preferred private, community HIEs to meet accountable care organization demands.
Of the providers surveyed, 99 percent said payers should reward them for reducing readmissions, eliminating duplicate diagnostic testing and decreasing episodes of care.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.