Journal of Healthcare Management - July/August 2014 - (Page 273)

H o s pI ta l c Haracter I st I cs a ssoc I ate D w It H a cHIeve Ment INTRODUCTION Despite the potential for interoperable electronic health records (EHRs) to positively affect healthcare delivery (Bates & Gawande, 2003; Kaushal, Shojania, & Bates, 2003; Kazley & Ozcan, 2008; Kazley & Diana, 2011), hospital adoption of the technology remains low, limiting the realization of these benefits (Jha et al., 2006; Ford, McAlearney, Phillips, Menachemi, & Rudolph, 2008; Jha et al., 2009; Jha, DesRoches, Kralovec, & Joshi, 2010). The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 includes billions of dollars in incentives to promote the adoption and meaningful use (MU) of certified EHRs among eligible hospitals (Blumenthal & Tavenner, 2010; Office of the National Coordinator, 2010). The HITECH Act's primary initiative provides incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid to move hospitals to EHR adoption and MU by helping them overcome financial barriers (Ash & Bates, 2005; Thakkar & Davis, 2006; Jha et al., 2009), but the ultimate goal is to achieve national improvements in quality and reductions in cost (Blumenthal & Tavenner, 2010). In December 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) completed the second year of incentive payments and released information on hospitals that successfully achieved MU. A 2010 survey found that 46% of hospitals expressed interest in participating in the program in 2011, the first opportunity to do so (Diana, Kazley, Ford, & Menachemi, 2012). However, a smaller percentage of hospitals actually achieved MU by the end of 2012 (CMS, of M eanIngful u se 2012). It is important to understand the characteristics of hospitals that have successfully participated in the incentive program so that policy makers can get an early glimpse of how it is influencing EHR adoption and MU. Of particular interest is the extent to which previous EHR adoption is associated with achieving MU. Understanding this relationship will help determine if the program has merely rewarded hospitals that already had an EHR before the start of the program or encouraged hospitals to adopt a comprehensive EHR that meets the criteria for MU. Further, given that hospital incentive payments through Medicare are tied to Medicare caseload volume, it is important to determine if high-volume Medicare facilities are disproportionately represented among hospitals receiving payment as of 2012. Understanding these dynamics can help decision makers gauge the early impact of the HITECH Act's EHR incentive program and make any necessary corrections in the remaining years of the program. The purpose of this article is threefold. First, we aim to characterize the hospitals that have achieved MU and identify differences between those that have and their counterparts. Second, we seek to determine how the 2010 EHR adoption level is related to achieving MU by 2012. Third, we discuss the implications that our findings might have for the overall success of the HITECH incentive program. We conducted the analysis using data from the 2011 American Hospital Association's (AHA) Annual Survey of Hospitals and its 2011 release of the Hospital EHR Adoption Database, the U.S. 273

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of Healthcare Management - July/August 2014

Journal of Healthcare Management - July/August 2014
Contents
Interview With Charles R. Evans, FACHE, President of the International Health Services Group and Senior Advisor at Jackson Healthcare
The Most Effective Leadership Style for the New Landscape of Healthcare
Exploring Obstacles to Success for Early Careerists in Healthcare Leadership
Decisions Through Data: Analytics in Healthcare
Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Accountable Care Organizations
Hospital Characteristics Associated With Achievement of Meaningful Use
The Effect of Professional Culture on Intrinsic Motivation Among Physicians in an Academic Medical Center
Abstract from the Academy of Management

Journal of Healthcare Management - July/August 2014