News Feature | September 29, 2015

Only 20% Of ACOs Use Telemedicine

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Telehealth Dr. Video

According to an eHealth Incentive webinar few ACOs are jumping on the telemedicine bandwagon despite the increased popularity of the technology.

According to the eHealth Initiative’s 2015 ACO Survey, only 20 percent of ACOs have adopted telemedicine technology. In fact, most ACOs have limited technology when compared to other healthcare organizations.

MobiHealth News further reports that, while 75 percent used EHRs and 62 percent offered a patient portal, only 30 percent use electronic forms to capture patient data.

“We think this shows technology isn’t really central to patient engagement activities right now,” Alex Kontur, manager of research and projects at eHealth Initiative, said in a recent webinar. “It’s unclear how much health IT is supporting these care transitions and planning programs, but when asked about certain activities, nearly half of ACOs reported having difficulties engaging patients, which seems to suggest that the technology side isn’t quite up to snuff yet. So aside from the patient portal, some of the technologies that we’ve imagined ACOs would be using, things like telemedicine or interactive forms, they’re not widely used by ACOs today.”

Other types of technology used by ACOs were:

  • analytics software (82 percent)
  • EHRs (75 percent)
  • care management software (62 percent)
  • computerized order entry (57 percent)
  • data warehouses (56 percent)

“A majority of ACOs now have those foundational IT pieces in place but they have to connect them so they can support advanced functions like care coordination across the network,” Kontur said. “Difficulties obtaining and integrating data are really steeped in the interoperability challenges ACOs are facing.”

Download the report and webinar HERE