If post-acute care providers want to remain viable as businesses, they’re going to have to invest in technology.
A new survey of 418 post-acute executives indicates that a lack of information technology is not a top concern (reimbursements, denials and value-based, accountable care are) but that executives recognize that without technological investment, their businesses are toast.
In a Black Book Rankings poll, 49 percent of post-acute providers believe that without investing in IT, data exchanges and analytics/reporting software, their companies will be acquired or consolidated into a larger company with advanced technological capabilities.
That 49 percent is made up of stand-alone and small chain (up to five units) providers. No large chain providers (with more than six units) are concerned about being acquired.
“The movers and the shakers” of the post-acute market have recognized their strategy for weathering declining reimbursements, changes in payer mix and involvement in value-based care models has to include technology, said Douglas Brown, managing partner of Black Book Market Research. “It’s got to be a priority for post-acute to stay viable.”
However, the IT outlook, for small or stand-alone providers in particular, isn’t rosy.
Sixty-three percent of post-acute providers (skilled nursing facilities, home care and others) said their information technology and patient data exchanges are currently non-existent or poor.
Ninety-two percent said an IT platform for patient data sharing and comprehensive care coordination would improve their organization’s financial health and their ability to thrive in accountable care models and lowered fee-for-service reimbursements, however, 89 percent of stand-alone providers said they have not put aside money for IT purchases or improvements this year; 78 percent of small chain and 84 percent of large chain providers said they have pegged some funds for IT investment.
While coming up with the funds to invest in IT is likely a barrier to improving the IT outlook for post-acute providers, another big challenge is actually finding the IT, said Brown.
Seventy-eight percent of post-acute providers participating in the Black Book Rankings poll said they were not aware of technology companies that could provide the technology products they needed.
In the face of these challenges, 37 percent of post-acute CEOs and 61 percent of other post-acute executives, including CFOs, believe that participating in public and/or private health insurance exchanges will allow them to maintain business viability.