Technology

Although there are contentions regarding its mechanisms, health policy and managed care authorities agree that the ultimate goal of healthcare reform is to increase access, improve quality, decrease costs, and measure progress. The initiative of further integrating digital health systems and implementing health information technology continues to receive substantial support and growth in a positive direction.

This framework suggests new meaningful use measures and guidance for prioritizing implementation of different health information technology functionalities, based on their expected financial effects.

Many patients stop taking medications for chronic conditions, thereby reducing the effectiveness of healthcare. An attempt to screen electronic VA healthcare records to identify patients as they discontinued a medication was not an efficient approach to this problem.

Patients with online access to key components of their personal health records were 2.6 times more likely than nonusers to remain health plan members.

Robert Margolis, MD, Managing Partner and CEO, HealthCare Partners, says there needs to be a movement toward managing patients based on population.