Med Care. 2024 Feb 27. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001980. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Using federal funds from the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services funded the 2011-2021 Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs throughout the country.
OBJECTIVE: Identify the market factors associated with Meaningful Use (MU) of EHRs after primary care providers (PCPs) enrolled in the Florida-EHR incentives program through Adopting, Improving, or Upgrading (AIU) an EHR technology.
RESEARCH DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using 2011-2018 program records for 8464 Medicaid providers.
MAIN OUTCOME: MU achievement after first-year incentives.
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES: The resource dependence theory and the information uncertainty perspective were used to generate key-independent variables, including the county’s rurality, educational attainment, poverty, health maintenance organization penetration, and number of PCPs per capita.
ANALYTICAL APPROACH: All the county rates were converted into 3 dichotomous measures corresponding to high, medium, and low terciles. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were calculated. A generalized hierarchical linear model was used because MU data were clustered at the county level (level 2) and measured at the practice level (level 1).
RESULTS: Overall, 41.9% of Florida Medicaid providers achieved MU after receiving first-year incentives. Rurality was positively associated with MU (P<0.001). Significant differences in MU achievements were obtained when we compared the “high” terciles with the “low” terciles for poverty rates (P=0.002), health maintenance organization penetration rates (P=0.02), and number of PCPs per capita (P=0.01). These relationships were negative.
CONCLUSIONS: Policy makers and health care managers should not ignore the contribution of market factors in EHR adoption.
PMID:38447010 | DOI:10.1097/MLR.0000000000001980