Home Health & Hospice Week

The day that Medicare will require electronic records or apply a penalty for home health agencies may be approaching.

In a new report, the Government Accountability Office says the Department of Health & Human Services “has not measured the effectiveness of each of its efforts to promote the use of EHRs, and it lacks a comprehensive plan to meet its goal of increasing the proportion of post-acute care providers electronically exchanging health information.”

“When patients transition from acute care to post-acute care settings, it is important that the providers share patient health information, such as health records and test results,” the GAO says in the report. “This can help coordinate care, avoid duplication of tests and procedures, and prevent medication and other errors,” the report says.

The costs associated with failed care coordination were between $25 billion and $45 billion in 2011, researchers say, and transitions between acute care settings and PAC settings account for as much as 60 percent of medication errors, according to the report. “Electronic Information Exchange … during transitions between acute and post-acute settings can facilitate prompt care coordination and thus has the potential to help improve health care quality and reduce costs.”

An EHR requirement for HHAs may be delayed by the problem of accessing the Internet from patients’ homes, however, the report suggests.

Next: The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will perform a phone survey of HHAs to gather baseline data about EHR adoption and other issues. See the report at www.gao.gov/assets/690/682337.pdf.