Study finds majority of ACOs working with just basic HIT

Studies on accountable care organizations have found cost savings but a new survey finds that ACOs have made little progress in improving their health IT capabilities in the past year.

Conducted by the eHealth Initiative, the survey found that 76 percent of ACOs do not participate in health information exchange at an enterprise, community or state level.

Those ACOs with 100 or more physicians and those in operation for at least 18 months have better IT capabilities and are better able to use data effectively, according to the findings.

Other ACOs, however, cite limited improvements associated with health IT and falling provider satisfaction. They named blending data, putting solutions into practice and integrating them into workflow as growing challenges.

Most ACOs continue to use basic health IT systems for documentation and coordination of care, with few advanced capabilities such as population health, revenue or customer relationship management systems. Few ACOs report using secure messaging (38 percent), referral management tools (36 percent), phone-based telemedicine (34 percent) or video-based telemedicine (26 percent.)

In addition to low HIE participation, all the organizations surveyed said access to data from external organizations is a significant challenge. Respondents also indicated that concerns about cost and return on investment has increased since the last survey in 2013--from 14 percent up to more than 90 percent. Ninety percent said they see interoperability and workflow integration as a significant challenge, up from 50 percent in 2013; while 66 percent report being unable to staff appropriately, compared with 33 percent who said so last year.