Part 2

Money talks.

In other words, offering financial incentives is one way to effect behavior change.  It seems to have worked in getting providers to adopt and use health IT in everyday practice, both in New Jersey and nationally.

HITECH and Meaningful Use Incentive Payments

As explained by ONC in its October 2014 “Report to Congress”:

“Prior to the HITECH Act, adoption of EHRs among physicians and hospitals was quite low. In 2009, roughly one-half (48 percent) of office-based physicians had any type of EHR system. When examining the adoption of EHRs containing functionalities, such as the ability to generate a comprehensive list of patients’ medications and allergies and the ability to view laboratory or imaging results electronically, only 22 percent of office-based physicians had a basic EHR system. U.S. hospitals had similar adoption rates. In 2009, only 12 percent of hospitals had adopted a basic EHR system.”

Stethoscope and currency
Copyright: / 123RF Stock Photo

According to ONC, as of June of 2014, more than 75% of the nation’s eligible physicians had received incentive payments, while 92% of eligible hospitals (including critical access hospitals) had received incentive payments. The areas evaluated by CSHP covered key meaningful use criteria eligible physicians must meet in order to receive these payments.

For the NJ evaluation, CSHP conducted and analyzed a physician mail survey, clinical laboratory and pharmacy mail surveys with telephone follow-up, and physician follow-up telephone interviews with fax and mail follow-up.  In addition, Health Information Organization (HIO) use metrics from each of New Jersey’s six regional HIOs were collected from the New Jersey Department of Health and analyzed by CSHP researchers.

New Jersey Health IT Adoption

The CSHP Report findings identified several key themes.  Among physicians responding, older physicians, those in smaller practices, and specialists were less likely to adopt health IT and more likely to report barriers to adoption (particularly start-up and maintenance costs) and were also more likely to report implementation of health IT as having had a negative impact on their practices.

Most physicians who reported use of health IT felt that use of health IT had a positive impact.  However, they frequently cited start-up and maintenance costs cited as barriers to health IT use.  For labs and pharmacies, those not using health IT reported more perceived barriers to health IT use and anticipated a more negative impact on their workflow and productivity.  Among physicians, labs, and pharmacies, the lack of uniform standards within the industry was cited as resulting in poor system compatibility and was a major issue across all types of health IT.

CSHP weighted the physician mail survey data by specialty to be representative of New Jersey’s office-based physicians. Key findings regarding specific health IT use among the state’s physicians responding to the physician mail survey included the following:

  • Nearly three-fourths (72.5%) of physicians reported use of health IT to transmit prescriptions to pharmacies electronically.
  • Nearly two-thirds (62.6%) of physicians reported use of health IT to view test results from clinical labs electronically. However, only 37.1% reported use of health IT to send lab test requests electronically.
  • Nearly half (48.9%) of physicians reported that they maintained 100% of patient records in their EHR systems.
  • More than half of physicians (57.3%) provided a clinical visit summary to at least 50% of their patients. Less than half of physicians (42.9%) provided electronic patient care summaries to other providers. About one-quarter of physicians (23.0%) accessed electronic patient care summaries created by other providers.

In (very general) comparison, the ONC Report found that in 2013, 57% of prescriptions sent by physicians were sent electronically.  ONC also reported that more than two-thirds (69%) of physicians reported having the capability to order lab tests electronically, while more than three-quarters (77%) reported having the ability to view the lab results electronically.

Perhaps statewide health IT interoperability through expansion of and connection among regional NJ HIOs can be achieved in the next decade, but it will require creation of the necessary health IT infrastructure, awareness of its existence by the providers who will use it, and, perhaps, financial or other incentives to effect its adoption and use.