Incorporating health IT into primary care transformation.

OBJECTIVES: To understand the role of health information technology (IT) vendors and health IT functionality in supporting advanced primary care. STUDY DESIGN: We synthesized multiple rounds of surveys and interviews (2017-2022) from a mixed-methods evaluation of Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+), a multipayer model developed by CMS. CPC+ was the first federal advanced primary care reform effort that formalized health IT vendors' roles in supporting health IT implementation and specified detailed health IT requirements for practices. METHODS: We conducted content analysis to identify cross-cutting themes related to health IT for both practices and vendors, comparing similarities and differences across participants and (when possible) over time. RESULTS: Vendors and practices reported advances in registries and dashboards for improved information management within the practice as well as strengthened relationships between vendors and practices that supported health IT implementation. However, CPC+ practices noted several gaps or challenges using existing functionalities, and both vendors and practices reported broader challenges for more transformative health IT change, particularly the lack of interoperable health information exchange needed to support care management and care coordination. Key factors constraining vendors' investment in further advances included long product development schedules, making it difficult to respond to rapidly evolving model requirements. Vendors also shared that CPC+ practices represented a small fraction of their client base, so investing in developing new functionality was not strategic unless it was more broadly relevant outside CPC+. CONCLUSIONS: Continued collaboration among health IT vendors, practices, policy makers, and payers could support continued technological improvements, particularly related to information exchange and communication. Aligning requirements more closely with other federal and private models could also help mitigate the risk for vendors.

Effects of a nursing home telehealth program on spending and utilization for Medicare residents.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of eLongTermCare (eLTC), a telehealth program implemented by an integrated health system in 45 nursing homes across the Midwest, on the use of acute hospital services and total expenditures for Medicare residents. DATA SOURCES: Minimum Data Set, Medicare fee-for-service claims, and enrollment data from 2013 to 2018. STUDY DESIGN: We used a longitudinal difference-in-differences design to estimate the changes in outcomes for treatment beneficiaries before and after participating in the eLTC program, relative to changes for the matched comparison beneficiaries over the same period. We measured outcomes over a 24-month follow-up period, including total Medicare spending, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and the likelihood of readmission. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Using administrative data, we identified treatment beneficiaries who stayed at participating nursing facilities during the program period and matched comparison beneficiaries with similar baseline characteristics from non-participating facilities in the same geographic locations. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: For long-term care residents, the eLTC program led to an estimated reduction of 73 ED visits per 1000 beneficiaries (p < 0.01, 8.6% effect) over the two-year follow-up period. The estimated effects for this group were concentrated among beneficiaries who entered the nursing home after program startup, with sizable reductions in hospitalizations, ED visits, and spending. For skilled care residents, the program was associated with an estimated reduction of 85 ED visits per 1000 beneficiaries (p = 0.03, 9.7% effect), but had no discernible effect on their hospitalizations or total Medicare spending. CONCLUSIONS: Telehealth can be a valuable tool for nursing homes to enhance care coordination and provide timely access to care, leading to lower spending for nursing home residents. Future research needs to explore payment methods that encourage telehealth expansion in nursing homes.

The Impact of a Health Information Technology-Focused Patient-centered Medical Neighborhood Program Among Medicare Beneficiaries in Primary Care Practices: The Effect on Patient Outcomes and Spending.

BACKGROUND: The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) tests new models of paying for or delivering health care services and expands models that improve health outcomes while lowering medical spending. CMMI gave TransforMED, a national learning and dissemination contractor, a 3-year Health Care Innovation Award (HCIA) to integrate health information technology systems into physician practices. This paper estimates impacts of TransforMED's HCIA-funded program on patient outcomes and Medicare parts A and B spending. RESEARCH DESIGN: We compared outcomes for Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries served by 87 treatment practices to outcomes for Medicare FFS beneficiaries served by 286 matched comparison practices, adjusting for differences in outcomes between the 2 groups during a 1-year baseline period. We estimated impacts in 3 evaluation outcome domains: quality-of-care processes, service use, and spending. RESULTS: We estimated the program led to a 7.1% reduction in inpatient admissions and a 5.7% decrease in the outpatient emergency department visits. However, there was no evidence of statistically significant effects in outcomes in either the quality-of-care processes or spending domains. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that TransforMED's program reduced service use for Medicare FFS beneficiaries, but also show that the program did not have statistically significant favorable impacts in the quality-of-care processes or spending domains. These results suggest that providing practices with population health management and cost-reporting software-along with technical assistance for how to use them-can complement practices' own patient-centered medical home transformation efforts and add meaningfully to their impacts on service use.

Physician Perspectives on Medical Home Recognition for Practice Transformation for Children.

OBJECTIVE: To examine child-serving physicians' perspectives on motivations for and support for practices in seeking patient-centered medical home (PCMH) recognition, changes in practice infrastructure, and care processes before and after recognition, and perceived benefits and challenges of functioning as a PCMH for the children they serve, especially children with special health care needs. METHODS: Semistructured interviews with 20 pediatricians and family physicians at practices that achieved National Committee for Quality Assurance level 3 PCMH recognition before 2011. We coded notes and identified themes using an iterative process and pattern recognition analysis. RESULTS: Physicians reported being motivated to seek PCMH recognition by a combination of altruistic and practical goals. Most said recognition acknowledged existing practice characteristics, but encouraged ongoing, and in some cases substantial, transformation. Although many physicians said recognition helped practices improve financial arrangements with payers and participate in quality initiatives, most physicians could not assess the specific benefits of recognition on patients' use of services or health outcomes. Challenges for practices in providing care for children included managing additional physician responsibilities, communicating with other providers and health systems, and building sustainable care coordination procedures. CONCLUSIONS: PCMH recognition can be valuable to practices as a public acknowledgement to payers and patients that certain processes are in place, and can also catalyze new and continued transformation. Programs and policies seeking to transform primary care for children should leverage physicians' motivations and find mechanisms to build practices' capacity for care management systems and linkages with the medical neighborhood.

Consumer Engagement in Health IT: Distinguishing Rhetoric from Reality.

RATIONALE: Policymakers want health information technology (health IT) to support consumer engagement to help achieve national health goals. In this paper, we review the evidence to compare the rhetoric with the reality of current practice. CURRENT REALITY AND BARRIERS: Our environmental scan shows that consumer demand exists for electronic access to personal health information, but that technical and system or political barriers still limit the value of the available information and its potential benefits. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS: There is a gap between current reality and the goals for consumer engagement. Actions that may help bridge this gap include: (1) resolving technical barriers to health information exchange (HIE); (2) developing more consumer-centric design and functionality; (3) reinforcing incentives that attract provider support by showing that consumer engagement is in their interest; and (4) building a stronger empirical case to convince decision makers that consumer engagement will lead to better care, improved health outcomes, and lower costs.

Evolving vendor market for HITECH-certified ambulatory EHR products.

BACKGROUND: The ambitious goals of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act require rapid development and certification of new ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) products. OBJECTIVES: To examine where the vendor market for EHR products stands now and the policy issues emerging from the market's evolution. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive study with policy analysis. METHODS: We had 3 main sources of information: (1) documents describing this evolving market, which is not well represented in peer-reviewed literature; (2) operational data on certified ambulatory EHR products and their use by Medicareeligible professionals attesting for meaningful use payments from January 2011 to October 2012; and (3) telephone interviews with 10 vendors that account for 57% of the market. RESULTS: Those attesting for Medicare meaningful use payments used ambulatory EHRs from 353 different vendors, although 16 firms accounted for 75% of the market. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index showed the ambulatory EHR market to be highly competitive, particularly for practices of 50 or fewer professionals. The interviewed vendors and the external analysts agreed that stage 1 requirements set a relatively low bar for market entry, but that likely will change as requirements get more demanding. CONCLUSIONS: The HITECH Act met its initial goals to motivate growth of diverse ambulatory EHR products. A market shakeout may emerge, though current data reveal no signs of it. Policy makers can influence the shape and value of such a shakeout, and the extent of disruption, through their approach to certification and "usability" and "interoperability" strategies and requirements.