Author ORCID Identifier
Anik Mukherjee: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9130-5720
Avijit Sengupta: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9275-1383
Abstract
Over the past decade, Medicare expenditures in the US have risen sharply, reaching $1.03 trillion in 2023 and projected to exceed $1.7 trillion by 2032. This surge, encompassing both inpatient and outpatient care, highlights the urgency of examining the impact of federal health IT initiatives and hospital efficiency programs. Despite widespread Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption spurred by the HITECH Act and the Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program, evidence on the direct impact of these policies on Medicare spending remains inconclusive. Studies indicate that while EHRs can offer operational and quality improvements, financial benefits are inconsistent and sometimes diminish over time. Further, the transition towards outpatient services and quality-based reimbursement has not yielded anticipated cost savings, with mixed outcomes in efficiency and care delivery. This study addresses a crucial research gap by empirically evaluating the effects of moving from PI Stage 1 to Stage 2 certification on healthcare scalability, service delivery, and cost in inpatient and outpatient settings. Utilizing relative-time-model analysis, findings show that Stage 2 attestation led to significant outpatient cost savings but higher inpatient costs, improved service delivery, growing outpatient beneficiaries, and a declining trend for inpatient beneficiaries. These insights inform policy and hospital strategy for optimizing technology investments.
Recommended Citation
Mukherjee, A., & Sengupta, A. (In press). Promoting Interoperability (PI): A Path to Better Serviceability and Lower Medicare Costs. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 58, pp-pp. Retrieved from https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol58/iss1/81
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