Measuring Relative Performance of Accountable Care Organizations: The Role of Health Information Technology
by
Indranil Bardhan
Professor of Management Information Systems
Jindal School of Management, The University of Texas at Dallas
Friday, September 15, 2017
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Speakman Hall Suite 200
Abstract
We propose and test a new framework to study the performance of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a new type of healthcare delivery organization which was established by CMS. We develop a novel conceptualization of ACO performance, based on their ability to use health care resources to maximize patient health outcomes. Our approach draws on data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the relative efficiency of ACOs. We address two research questions: (a) what is the impact of ACO size on performance, and (b) does health IT moderate the impact of size on ACO performance? We test our models using a nationwide sample of ACO data, using a two-stage DEA and regression approach. We find that larger ACOs are likely to exhibit lower performance relative to smaller ACOs. We also find that usage of electronic health records mitigates the negative impact of ACO size on performance. Our results suggest a closer look at the impact of health IT to improve patient care coordination and quality outcomes.