Association Between Meaningful Use and Florida Counties’ COVID-19 Case and Death Rates Among Medicaid Providers (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Freeman ◽  
Judith P. Monestime

BACKGROUND Although the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act has accelerated the adoption of Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) among Medicaid providers, only about half achieve Meaningful Use. Furthermore, the validity of public health reporting of COVID-19 outcomes, which relies on Meaningful Use advanced functions, remains unknown. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine the difference between Medicaid providers who did and did not achieve Meaningful Use regarding Florida county-level incidence rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths, accounting for county-level race/ethnicity, unemployment, income, prevalence of respiratory diseases, age, poverty, and healthcare environment. METHODS This cross-sectional ecologic study examined the association between Meaningful Use achievement by Medicaid providers and COVID-19 cases and death rates from 67 Florida counties as of November 19, 2020. Provider information was obtained from the publicly available database from the Florida Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program, formerly Electronic Health Record Incentive Program. The database includes the Area Health Resources File, capturing provider characteristics and population demographic and socioeconomic characteristics at the county level. Cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths were obtained from the Florida Department of Health Open Data (FDOH) for zip codes which were aggregated by county. Rates were obtained by dividing cumulative incidence or prevalence by the U.S. Census County population. RESULTS As of November 19, 2020, the cumulative incidence rate of COVID-19 deaths was significantly different between Medicaid providers who achieved Meaningful Use and those who did not (P=.0131), with relatively more deaths reported for those not achieving Meaningful Use. County-level characteristics associated with increased COVID-19 death rates in hierarchical models include greater concentrations of persons of African American or Black race (P<.0001), lower median household income (P<.0001), higher unemployment (P<.0001), and higher concentrations of those living in poverty (P<.0001) and without health insurance (P<.0001). CONCLUSIONS Although Federal subsidies successfully influenced the adoption of Electronic Health Records, our findings suggest an emerging further digital "advanced use" divide among patients cared for by Medicaid providers. Policy interventions need to be reevaluated to address disparities in COVID-19 clinical outcomes which appear exacerbated by the limited use of advanced Electronic Health Records functions. CLINICALTRIAL not applicable

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. e30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Patricia Slight ◽  
Eta S Berner ◽  
William Galanter ◽  
Stanley Huff ◽  
Bruce L Lambert ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Chen ◽  
Ronen Stein ◽  
Robert N. Baldassano ◽  
Jing Huang

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe current classification of pediatric CD is mainly based on cross-sectional data. The objective of this study is to identify subgroups of pediatric CD through trajectory cluster analysis of disease activity using data from electronic health records.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study of pediatric CD patients who had been treated with infliximab. The evolution of disease over time was described using trajectory analysis of longitudinal data of C-Reactive Protein (CRP). Patterns of disease evolution were extracted through functional principal components analysis and subgroups were identified based on those patterns using the Gaussian mixture model. We compared patient characteristics, a biomarker for disease activity, received treatments, and long-term surgical outcomes across subgroups.ResultsWe identified four subgroups of pediatric CD patients with differential relapse-and-remission risk profiles. They had significantly different disease phenotype (p < 0.001), CRP (p < 0.001) and calprotectin (p = 0.037) at diagnosis, with increasing percentage of inflammatory phenotype and declining CRP and fecal calprotectin levels from Subgroup 1 through 4. The risk of colorectal surgery within 10 years after diagnosis was significantly different between groups (p < 0.001). We did not find statistical significance in gender or age at diagnosis across subgroups, but the BMI z-score was slightly smaller in subgroup 1 (p =0.055).ConclusionsReadily available longitudinal data from electronic health records can be leveraged to provide a deeper characterization of pediatric Crohn disease. The identified subgroups captured novel forms of variation in pediatric Crohn disease that were not explained by baseline measurements and treatment information.SummaryThe current classification of pediatric Crohn disease mainly relies on cross-sectional data, e.g., the Paris classification. However, the phenotypic classification may evolve over time after diagnosis. Our study utilized longitudinal measures from the electronic health records and stratified pediatric Crohn disease patients with differential relapse-and-remission risk profiles based on patterns of disease evolution. We found trajectories of well-maintained low disease activity were associated with less severe disease at baseline, early initiation of infliximab treatment, and lower risk of surgery within 10 years of diagnosis, but the difference was not fully explained by phenotype at diagnosis.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinglei Shen ◽  
Adam P. Dicker ◽  
Laura Doyle ◽  
Timothy N. Showalter ◽  
Amy S. Harrison ◽  
...  

Most large academic radiation oncology practices have incorporated electronic health record systems into practice and plan to meet meaningful use requirements. Further work should focus on needs of smaller practices, and specific guidelines may improve widespread adoption.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 999-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal Yuan ◽  
R Adams Dudley ◽  
W John Boscardin ◽  
Grace A Lin

Abstract Objective Electronic health records (EHRs) were expected to yield numerous benefits. However, early studies found mixed evidence of this. We sought to determine whether widespread adoption of modern EHRs in the US has improved clinical care. Methods We studied hospitals reporting performance measures from 2008–2015 in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare database that also reported having an EHR in the American Hospital Association 2015 IT supplement. Using interrupted time-series analysis, we examined the association of EHR implementation, EHR vendor, and Meaningful Use status with 11 process measures and 30-day hospital readmission and mortality rates for heart failure, pneumonia, and acute myocardial infarction. Results A total of 1246 hospitals contributed 8222 hospital-years. Compared to hospitals without EHRs, hospitals with EHRs had significant improvements over time on 5 of 11 process measures. There were no substantial differences in readmission or mortality rates. Hospitals with CPSI EHR systems performed worse on several process and outcome measures. Otherwise, we found no substantial improvements in process measures or condition-specific outcomes by duration of EHR use, EHR vendor, or a hospital’s Meaningful Use Stage 1 or Stage 2 status. Conclusion In this national study of hospitals with modern EHRs, EHR use was associated with better process of care measure performance but did not improve condition-specific readmission or mortality rates regardless of duration of EHR use, vendor choice, or Meaningful Use status. Further research is required to understand why EHRs have yet to improve standard outcome measures and how to better realize the potential benefits of EHR systems.


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