News Feature | August 19, 2014

ACOs Struggle With Tech Adoption

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

ACO Tech Adoption

A survey from the eHealth Initiative shows ACOs have made little HIT progress in the last year.

According to the eHealth initiative (EHI), despite the passing of an entire year, accountable care organizations (ACO) have not made substantial health IT progress. EHI found through responses to the 2014 survey of ACOs that these organizations are continuing to struggle with adoption of certain kinds of technology.

Results showed many ACOs have basic health IT in order to store records or coordinate care. iHealth Beat reports that, in fact, the majority of ACOs have the ability to electronically store data:

  • 86 percent of ACOs have an electronic health record system
  • 74 percent of ACOs have a disease registry
  • 68 percent of ACOs have a data warehouse
  • 58 percent of ACOs have a clinical decision support system

However, the survey found ACOs lacking in use of other types of technology. For example:

  • customer relationship management systems, 26 percent
  • secure messaging, 38 percent
  • referral management tools, 36 percent
  • revenue cycle management tools, 28 percent
  • phone-based telemedicine, 34 percent
  • video-based telemedicine, 26 percent

Health Data Management reports most ACOs surveyed said they had a health IT infrastructure capable of supporting quality measurement, population health management, physician payment and contract adjudication. Few of these, however, can support risk management and patient engagement.

Since 2013, ACOs have made little progress. Exchanging data is one area where these organizations have largely remained the same. An astounding 100 percent of those surveyed identified getting health data from external facilities as an obstacle.