Abstract

Healthcare costs in the US are rising at an alarming rate and medical liability claims are significant contributors. along with financial losses, medical malpractice compromises patient safety and provider reputation. Several federal and state initiatives like Meaningful Use work towards Health IT adoption and use. We investigate the impact of Health IT on nature and severity of malpractice claims reported in Florida from 2011-2016. We provide a novel method to estimate information failures in malpractice claims using machine learning. We found the relative risk of malpractice claims with high level of medical error get reduced by 87-89% with each successful attestation to MU-Stage 2 and by 52-62% for MU-Stage 1. The information failure in malpractice claims shows a reduction with MU-Stage 1 attestation but shows increase with MU-Stage 2. We provide evidence of direct positive value creation by Health IT for to Healthcare Providers and discuss its policy implications.

Share

COinS
 

Impact of Health IT on Nature and Severity of Malpractice Claims

Healthcare costs in the US are rising at an alarming rate and medical liability claims are significant contributors. along with financial losses, medical malpractice compromises patient safety and provider reputation. Several federal and state initiatives like Meaningful Use work towards Health IT adoption and use. We investigate the impact of Health IT on nature and severity of malpractice claims reported in Florida from 2011-2016. We provide a novel method to estimate information failures in malpractice claims using machine learning. We found the relative risk of malpractice claims with high level of medical error get reduced by 87-89% with each successful attestation to MU-Stage 2 and by 52-62% for MU-Stage 1. The information failure in malpractice claims shows a reduction with MU-Stage 1 attestation but shows increase with MU-Stage 2. We provide evidence of direct positive value creation by Health IT for to Healthcare Providers and discuss its policy implications.