Overall provider satisfaction with health information exchange (HIE) solutions has dropped an average of 8 percent since last year as provider demands have outpaced vendor delivery, according to a new report from the Orem, Utah-based KLAS research.
KLAS interviewed 219 HIE providers, both public and private. According to the report, grants are exhausted, public HIEs are struggling, and vendors are trying to deliver long-term value. Most vendors continue to experience flat or falling performance scores from customers as demands outpace delivery, the research shows. Three out of the four lowest-ranked vendors are industry veterans with high name recognition and market share: Medicity, Optum, and RelayHealth. Strong technology and service place Epic and Orion Health at the top of ranked vendors and elevate Allscripts and InterSystems in early results, KLAS reports.
In terms of HIE market share, electronic medical record (EMR) vendors may be ringing up the most sales due to relationships, price, and convenience. Nonetheless, vendors with EMR-agnostic solutions, including Allscripts, ICA, InterSystems, Siemens, and Orion Health, are making headway in the strength of their technology—a value proposition that was otherwise fading, according to the report.
Allscripts made headlines with its 2013 acquisition of dbMotion. Providers say that move has been a win, but Allscripts is treading a path that has proven to be treacherous for other vendors. Previous acquisitions of Medicity (Aetna), Axolotl (Optum), and MobileMD (Siemens) have resulted in plummeting performance as customers have experienced disruptions in service and product development.
The report suggests that the future has not yet arrived. HIE vendors have invested millions to add functionality to help them stay relevant in the future of accountable care and payment reform. Allscripts, InterSystems, and Optum currently have a head start, but overall adoption of and satisfaction with HIE-based analytics and patient engagement are moderate to low. Some providers hope to leverage these pieces yet, but many will likely delay doing so until vendors finally meet expectations for basic data exchange, says KLAS.
