Researcher says fear about lost competitive advantage stalls HIEs

Stakeholders’ fear of losing their competitive advantage is slowing the development of heath information exchanges (HIE), Government Health IT reported September 10.

 

Business concerns are causing a delay in the evolution of HIEs into sophisticated platforms capable of managing data for performance incentive and quality management programs, Jay Grossman, a senior health researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington, DC, told Government Health IT.  Grossman addressed the annual meeting of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) September 9.

 

“What we found were very consistent concerns across all HIEs about sharing data,” Grossman said. “Providers and health plans view patient data as a key strategic asset.”

 

Grossman said she reached those conclusions after leading a 2007 AHRQ study that evaluated community stakeholders of four HIEs located in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida. She told Government Health IT that none had comprehensive systems for clinical data. “Providers’ competitive concerns really heightened with the idea of a clinical data depository,” she said.

 

Click here to read the Government Health IT article.