Friday at Five: Recent Studies, Surveys and Reports

Our recent roundup of surveys and reports from around the industry. We found interesting information that continues to give a glimpse into where we are going in healthcare. This month ransomware, trusting medical imaging AI, cost transparency, No Surprises Act, data capacities for patient-centered care, controlled Rx management, and hospital profit margins.

New ONC Data Brief
ONC (@ONC_HealthIT) released a new data brief and blog post which highlight how health IT is supporting safer use and management of controlled substance prescriptions. According to the American Hospital Association (AHA) Information Technology (IT) Supplement Survey, the proportion of non-federal acute care hospitals enabled for EPCS increased from 67% in 2018 to 96% in 2021.

2022 WEDI No Surprises Act Survey Results
The WEDI (@WEDIonline) No Surprises Task Group developed a survey in April, which collected input from 274 industry stakeholders. “While the No Surprises Act includes much needed consumer protections against catastrophic “surprise” bills, it also includes challenging data exchange provisions such as the convening provider/facility requirement,” stated Charles Stellar, WEDI President and CEO. “Even though the government plans to end enforcement discretion for selfpay patients at the end of this year, currently there is no standard format or established workflow to transmit data to or from the convenor.”

New Research from HFMA and Strata Reveals Only Six Percent of Hospitals Rate Their Cost Reduction Program as Extremely Effective
Strata Decision Technology (Strata) (@StrataDecision), a developer of cloud-based financial planning, analytics and performance tools for healthcare, announced the results of a poll conducted with the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) of 185 healthcare finance, accounting and revenue cycle executives. The survey revealed that although nearly 89% of healthcare organizations have some type of cost reduction program in place, only six percent of hospitals characterize their program as extremely effective.

Building the Data Capacity for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research: The 2021 Annual Report Executive Summary and Full Report

The State of Ransomware in Healthcare 2022
Sophos (@Sophos) has just launched the State of Ransomware in Healthcare 2022, an insightful report carved out of its annual study of the real-world ransomware experiences of healthcare IT professionals. This year, 5,600 IT professionals, including 381 in healthcare, from 31 countries participated in the research.

Racial Disparities in Diagnosis and Treatment of Major Depression
From BlueCross BlueShield (@BCBSAssociation) – People worldwide are suffering with mental health challenges now more than ever. Social distancing and remote work and school have translated into emotional distancing for many. The pandemic has magnified the challenges at home and abroad, and some racial and ethnic groups suffer disproportionately. Quantifying the extent of racial and ethnic inequities in mental health can help us better understand how to address them.

This study investigates disparities in the prevalence of diagnosis and treatment of major depressive disorder, or major depression3, between majority White, Black and Hispanic communities. Our analysis spans 2016 to 2020 and is based on the medical claims of 3.1 million Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) commercially insured individuals with major depression between the ages of 12 and 64. For additional insights, we surveyed more than 2,700 adults, aged 18 to 75, about their attitudes and perspectives around mental health and how they access care.

New Intelerad Research Shows 64 Percent of U.S. Consumers Highly Trust Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Medical Imaging
Patient trust is not a barrier to artificial intelligence (AI) adoption by medical imaging professionals, according to a new study by Intelerad (@Intelerad), a global company in medical image management solutions. This is just one finding from Intelerad’s wide-ranging study that queried over 1,000 healthcare consumers across the U.S. to uncover the impact of healthcare’s digital transformation on the healthcare consumer in a post-pandemic world.

New Research Points to How Critical Healthcare Cost Information Is
For the fourth year in a row, HealthSparq (@HealthSparq) surveyed more than 1,000 individuals across the country to understand their thoughts and behaviors across a number of healthcare topics. This year, the data painted a complicated picture around healthcare transparency and the impact of healthcare costs.

Azalea Health’s RCM Services Outperform Industry Standard in Recent Benchmark Study
Azalea Health (@AzaleaHealth), a provider of fully-integrated cloud-based healthcare solutions and services, released results from its internal customer survey, highlighting how providers are leveraging the company’s revenue cycle management (RCM) services throughout the year. The Azalea RCM Performance Analysis was conducted at the end of 2021 and captured data from across 500+ healthcare providers using Azalea Health’s RCM and billing services.

Hospitals Face Widening Margin Pressures as Expenses Increase
Read the latest findings from the April Syntellis (@Syntellis) Performance Trends report that show while providers are still feeling pressure from staffing shortages and rising expenses, declining hospital cases as the Omicron surge waned have lessened the strain. According to the report, hospitals still face margin pressures as the gap between revenue growth and expenses continues to increase. However, a decline in COVID rates (dropping to 945,000 in March since January’s spike of more than 20 million) have lessened some of the operating challenges that hospitals faced during the skyrocketing Omicron surge.