Health IT Key to Success of Accountable Care Organizations
Health IT will be critical to the success of the accountable care organization model, according to a new report by CSC's Global Institute for Emerging Healthcare Practice, InformationWeek reports.
The report -- titled, "Preparing for Accountable Care: The Role of Health IT in Building Capacity" -- notes that health care organizations that do not adopt the ACO model or the necessary IT and practices to support better patient outcomes and quality risk long-term clinical and financial failure.
Jordan Battani, author of the report, said, "Accountable care may be the only element of the health reform legislation that directly addresses the issues of health care quality, health status improvements and health care cost inflation," adding, "As a result, it's here to stay as an organizing principle for health care delivery, and for innovations in payment and reimbursement structures."
Role of Health IT in ACOs
The report cites several health IT investments that will help ACOs succeed, including:
- Clinical information systems and point-of-care automation;
- Enterprise, master data management and integration; and
- Health information exchanges.
The report notes that many health care organizations already are struggling with a variety of health IT initiatives, such as the meaningful use incentive program and ICD-10 deadlines, and "have little appetite or bandwidth for new organizational changes, much less additional health IT projects."
However, the report states, "The good news is that most of the accountable care investments in work process change and in health IT are not new, and they have considerable overlap with what is required for other initiatives" (Lewis, InformationWeek, 10/17).
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