A Quantitative Investigation Into the Association of EHR Vendor Selection on Physician Performance Scores

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Agnihotri, Devanshi
Area of Honors:
Health Policy and Administration
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Yunfeng Shi, Thesis Supervisor
Selena E Ortiz, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Physician Performance
MIPS Scoring
EHR Vendor Selection
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether variation in physician performance scores can be explained by electronic health record (EHR) vendor selection and whether certain EHR vendors are associated with higher physician performance scores. Throughout the past decade, the federal government has initiated incentive programs to promote EHR adoption, including the introduction of Merit Based Incentive Payment System MIPS in 2017, with the aim of improving efficiency and transparency of health care delivery. Prior research has shown that the majority of hospitals and physicians have adopted EHR technology and attested to various stages of Meaningful Use (MU). Some studies have also evaluated the effects of EHR vendor selection on hospital performance. However, to our knowledge, there have been no studies to date investigating the impact of vendor selection on physician performance, indicating an important gap in the literature. A national sample of physicians was created using two sources: 2011 – 2017 EHR Products Meaningful Use Attestation data and 2017 Physician Compare MIPS Performance data. Both data sets are publicly available and provided by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). A regression model was developed to assess the association between EHR vendor selection and MIPS performance scores, controlling for various physician practice and EHR characteristics, including physician specialty, size of practice, and EHR certification edition. A significant association was found between EHR vendor selection and physician MIPS scores, with certain vendors being predictive of better physician performance. These findings can be informative for physicians, policy makers, and other researchers in understanding the role of EHR vendors.