Simulation Suggests That Medical Group Mergers Won’t Undermine The Potential Utility Of Health Information Exchanges

摘要

Substantial resources are being invested in health information exchanges (HIE), community-based consortia that enable independent health-care organizations to exchange clinical data. However, under pressure to form accountable care organizations, medical groups may merge and support private HIE, reducing the potential utility of community HIEs. Simulations of “care transitions” based on data from 10 Massachusetts communities suggest that mergers would have to be considerable to substantially reduce the potential utility of an HIE. Nonetheless, simulations also suggest that HIEs will need to recruit a large proportion of the medical groups in a community, as hospitals and the largest groups account for only 10 to 20% of care transitions in communities.