Shift in US Healthcare by Srinath Venkat, @ConnectSrinath

It also streamlines the clinical workflow, thereby improving the health outcomes through decision support, quality management and reporting of information across the continuum of care. There are various vendors who provide EHR services based on the care setting (Ambulatory, Hospital, Clinic or Physician office), and the major ones include EPIC, Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts and GE.
 
The Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), which provides managed care by giving access to providers in its network for self-financed and insured individuals, were first started in 1931 by Farmer’s Union of Oklahoma, where flat fee is collected irrespective of the services rendered. By 1951, it was estimated that 45% of the Americans were insured, and in 1965, Medicare which covers the older people above 65 years of age and younger people with disability was introduced. 

In 1996, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was introduced, which helps in protecting the healthcare information and reducing the healthcare administrative costs. In 2010, Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (PPACA) was introduced which helped the people to purchase health insurance through Health Insurance Exchanges.
 
The Four Ps of Healthcare (Patient, Provider, Payer and Public) benefit from the EHR which helps in integration of healthcare information, reducing the duplication, avoiding redundancy, thereby reducing the administrative and treatment cost in healthcare. 

The Meaningful use of EHR is the usage of certified (Certification Commision for Healthcare Information Technology) health information systems and software for improving the health outcomes and reducing the cost. EHR has both provider and payer component. Doctors, Hospitals, Laboratories, Pharmacy and other ancillary services use provider systems, which includes, practice management, EHR, Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), Document management and E-prescribing. 

There is a shift in healthcare towards retail-like scenario leading the consumer driven healthcare, where the patient is well-informed and shops for different treatment options using web portals like Web MD. Remote medical practice, real-time data collection, information integration and transfer, and collaboration among providers using EHR, creates significant improvement in overall health outcomes and cost. 

The adoption of EHR is growing rapidly because of billions of dollars spent by the government to incentivise providers for EHR usage. Also, there is a greater commitment by government to reduce the drug related adverse events in healthcare by recommending e-prescribing to the providers. The shift from pay for volumes / pay per visit towards pay for performance / outcomes which is encouraged by creating Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) is a motivational factor for meaningful use of EHR in healthcare.

The article was first published on Srinath Venkat’s LinkedIn Pulse page. The article has been republished here with the authors’ permission

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