Use of Electronic Health Record Systems in Accountable Care Organizations

OBJECTIVES: To assess the ability of accountable care organizations (ACOs) to use electronic health record (EHR) data for quality. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). METHODS: A national survey of MSSP ACOs included questions on the number of EHR systems used across all providers in the ACO and barriers to reporting EHR-based quality measures. RESULTS: Just 9% of ACOs use a single EHR system, whereas 77% use 6 or more EHR systems. The more EHR systems an ACO uses, the less likely it is to report having the infrastructure to aggregate EHR data and the more concerned it is about the short-term viability and accuracy of EHR-based quality measures. CONCLUSIONS: ACOs have diverse structures that often result in the usage of multiple EHR systems. This has the potential to cause serious delays when CMS begins requiring ACOs to report their quality measures through their EHRs in 2022.