Practice Management News

Does a Half Billion HIE Investment Create ROI?

By Jacqueline DiChiara

- Following a decade of healthcare’s investment in health information exchange (HIE) platforms, the healthcare industry enters a state of reflection and analysis regarding what the return on investment implications may be.

Health information exchange

The Office of the National Coodinator for Health IT awarded nearly $550 million in grants to help governments and 56 states establish health information exchange platforms. HIE platforms possess tremendous influence of interoperability investments and can profoundly advance the efficiency of healthcare services across a broad spectrum. Its active integration means those medical procedures that are harmful and redundant can essentially be chopped. The question is, are such imperative notions being actively implemented across the healthcare industry?

The future of HIEs are promising. An ongoing focus on the merging together of HIE info with Electronic Health Records (EHR) data has been proven to raise medication accuracy to 91 percent, as EHRIntelligence.com recently reported. Similary, HIE solutions may prove promising, according to new research from Niam Yaraghi, a fellow in the Brookings institution’s Center for Technology Innovation. Yaraghi examines HIE platforms’ overall accuracy and considers the extent to which government investments are financially profiting.

Yaraghi says prior literature on the matter is vaguely presented since physicians rarely query a regional health information organization (RHIO) database. Another reason for a lack of information on this subject, says Yaraghi, involves matters of money. “A RHIO without data is an expensive yet empty glass of water,” he comments.

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  • While considering a pair of ED settings located in Western New York and conducting identical trials from August to December of 2014, Yaraghi confirms there was a 25 percent and a 26 percent reduction in the number of radiology exams and laboratory tests. Further examination of one of the HIE databases resulted in a 47 percent decrease in radiology examinations.

    “After more than a decade of concerted national efforts, we are now on the verge of realizing the returns on our investments on health IT,” Yaraghi states. “HIE platforms have the potential to leverage the national investments on interoperability and radically improve the efficiency of health care services,” he adds.

    Yaraghi maintains the greater implications of his research are to promote the overall significance of designing efficient workflows so that accessing an HIE platform can be seamlessly integrated into routine procedures within ED care settings.

    “The results of this study enables other ED settings to evaluate the benefits of increasing their HIE querying rate against its potential costs,” Yarahi explains. “Moreover, the potential benefits of increased access to HIE platforms calls for more detailed studies on efficient strategies and workflow designs which enable ED clinicians to access HIE in smoother and user friendlier manners,” he says.

    Indeed, such findings have a sizable place within the realm of expansive healthcare costs. The push for healthcare reform with an active IT focus may be more imperative than ever, claims Yarahi. The US spends over 17 percent of its GDP on healthcare, says Yarahi. Although this number is higher than that of any other country, in terms of quality and efficiency, the US healthcare systems rank last when compared to France, Germany, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

    “Electronic exchange of medical data is one of many different potential IT solutions for improving efficiency in the health care system,” explains Yarahi. “It facilitates the timely access to patients’ medical records, which is crucial for physicians to make better decisions and avoid many redundant and often harmful medical procedures. Fewer redundancies and better medical decisions will naturally lead to much needed savings in the health care system.”