Strategic use of health information exchange and market share, payer mix, and operating margins

Abstract

Background: Health information exchange (HIE) capabilities are tied to health care organizations' strategic and business goals. As a technology that connects information from different organizations, HIE may be a source of competitive advantage and a path to improvements in performance. Purpose: The aim of the study was to identify the impact of hospitals' use of HIE capabilities on outcomes that may be sensitive to changes in various contracting arrangements and referral patterns arising from improved connectivity. Methodology: Using a panel of community hospitals in nine states, we examined the association between the number of different data types the hospital could exchange via HIE and changes in market share, payer mix, and operating margin (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014). Regression models that controlled for the number of different data types shared intraorganizationally and other time-varying factors and included both hospital and time fixed effects were used for adjusted estimates of the relationships between changes in HIE capabilities and outcomes. Results: Increasing HIE capability was associated with a 13 percentage point increase in a hospital's discharges that were covered by commercial insurers or Medicare (i.e., payer mix). Conversely, increasing intraorganizational information sharing was associated with a 9.6 percentage point decrease in the percentage of discharges covered by commercial insurers or Medicare. Increasing HIE capability or intraorganizational information sharing was not associated with increased market share nor with operating margin. Conclusions: Improving information sharing with external organizations may be an approach to support strategic business goals. Practice Implications: Organizations may be served by identifying ways to leverage HIE instead of focusing on intraorganizational exchange capabilities.

Progress and trends in healthcare marketing strategy (2018–2022): A descriptive and bibliometric analysis of the Web of Science (WOS) dataset

“…As depicted in Figure 9, this cluster is connected to all other clusters, which explains the centrality of data analytics in current and prospective research on HMS. This cluster has produced notable work such as the study on health information exchange and market share, payer mix, and operating margins for strategic deployment in healthcare (Vest et al , 2022), the correlation between a hospital's intra-system and inter-system information exchange (Vest and Simon, 2018), and the role of artificial intelligence in the formulation of innovative products such as cardiovascular RNA markers (Badimon et al , 2021).…”

A Decade of Health Information Technology and the Impact on Health Care in the U.S.: Systematic Review (Preprint)

“…[18][19][20][21] Beginning in 2015, research expanded from looking at the overall use of EHRs to a greater concentration on specific EHR functions including CDS and CPOE, a research topic that grew exponentially between 2015 and 2017 and remained an ongoing topic of interest. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] Some studies assessed CPOE, including using CDS to support CPOE. Research also focused on e-prescribing and electronic referrals.…”

Implementing Big Data Analytic Platform in Healthcare The Israeli experience

“…This ever-growing world of data provides clinicians, researchers and pharmaceutical industries with unprecedented capabilities of analyzing complex and multifactorial medical situations. Data sharing also encompasses advantages for hospitals to improve strategic planning and business goals (Vest, 2022), as well as their accountability to care provision (Nwafor, 2022). However, accessing these constantly accumulating data is challenging due to multitude legal-ethical (anonymizing patient's personal details), technical (data collection, storage and cyber security) and methodological (new modes of analytics and data interpretation) barriers.…”