Increased Collaboration Needed Among Hospitals Participating in Bundled Payment Programs to Improve Info Sharing

Recent data shows that there is an association between bundled payment model participation and use of health information exchange (HIE), according to a study published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics.

In the study, researchers examined the association between hospitals participating in bundled payment programs and the use of HIE in order to better understand how the US uses health information to collaborate.

Researchers conducted a secondary data analysis of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Healthcare IT Data base and the AHA annual survey using logistic regression to test the likelihood of hospitals participating in HIE if they also used a bundled payment reimbursement model.

“Negative binomial, ordered logistic and Poisson regression models were used to determine the associations between bundled payment reimbursement and health information sharing in terms of breadth, volume, and diversity, respectively,” explained the researchers.

"Hospitals participating in bundled payment programs were six percentage points more likely to send information through HIE (OR = 1.324, P< 0.05)," stated the researchers. "Compared to average-size hospitals in this sample, small hospitals were less likely to send information through HIE, while large ones were more likely to send information."

Further, hospitals in both metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas were more likely to send information than hospitals in rural areas.

Additionally, "Hospitals in bundled payment programs were also more likely to receive information through HIE (OR = 1.259, P< 0.05). Compared to average-size hospitals in this sample, small hospitals were less likely to receive information through HIE, while large ones were more likely to receive information."

Hospitals in metropolitan statistical areas were more likely to receive information through HIE than hospitals in rural areas.

Results also showed that participation in bundled payments is associated with a higher likelihood of exchanging different information and using HIE more frequently.

“The greater need for collaboration of hospitals participating in bundled payment programs was associated with greater information sharing among organizations through HIE, but different providers involved in the episode of care play different roles in HIE," researchers concluded.

—Edan Stanley

Reference:
Guerrazzi Young C, Feldman S, Hernandez SR. Inter-organizational information sharing and bundled payment reimbursement: Do hospitals in the US use health information exchange to collaborate? Int J Med Inform. 2020;145:104298. doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104298