The health information exchange market is expected to see a rise in mergers and acquisitions during the next few years as health care providers look to adopt electronic health records that meet "meaningful use" requirements for data exchange, according to a new analysis from research firm IDC Health Insights, InformationWeek reports.
Health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs can qualify for incentive payments under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package (Lewis, InformationWeek, 4/19).
Lynne Dunbrack -- author of the report and IDC Health Insights program director -- said health data exchange tools likely will become a commodity within 12 to 18 months (Goedert, Health Data Management, 4/15). Such tools could be a target for larger EHR vendors seeking to acquire health data exchange capabilities for their products.
The report also predicted that many firms will need to make changes to meet demand for data exchange tools that can support state, regional and national health information networks.
Implementing Health Data Exchanges
According to the report, hospital networks might be better poised than regional health information organizations to implement data exchange tools because most affiliated hospitals already have established certain levels of connectivity.
The report suggests that statewide health data exchanges likely will face challenges in adopting information exchange tools because of:
- Budgetary constraints;
- Competition from other health IT projects;
- Insufficient stakeholder cooperation; and
- Privacy and security issues (InformationWeek, 4/19).