Nearly half of U.S. physician groups plan to join a health information exchange (HIE), according to the findings of a new CapSite report released Friday.

The 4th Annual U.S. Ambulatory Electronic Health Record & Practice Management (PM) Study showed 43 percent of the 509,280 surveyed physicians indicated they plan to join an HIE.

Respondents represent more than 950 physician groups nationwide, offering insight on market adoption, market share, market opportunity and vendor share across the U.S. physician market.

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Survey findings also show 43 percent of respondent groups have successfully attested to Stage 1 meaningful use criteria, with 34 percent saying they have not yet attested. Out of physician groups who have attested to Stage 1, some 56 percent have received government incentive funds, and 21 percent have not.

Respondents say the most important driver for their EHR purchase is making the practice more efficient (39 percent) and increasing healthcare quality (28 percent).

Data from the 2012 CapSite U.S. Ambulatory Electronic Health Record & Practice Management Study

The 2012 Ambulatory EHR & PM study is the most recent in a series of CapSite strategic industry reports focused on assessing the impact of the HITECH Act of 2009.

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“This is our fourth in-depth assessment of the Ambulatory EHR marketplace, and we continue to see significant progress in the adoption of Ambulatory EHR solutions across all segments of the market," says CapSite Senior VP and GM, Gino Johnson.   

"Additionally, we found physician groups are making headway in attesting to EHR meaningful use for Stage 1 and beginning to formulate strategies for transitioning to new accountable care reimbursement models,” says Johnson.

The study includes voice of customer insight on physician groups':

• Progress on attesting to Stage 1 of meaningful use
• Status on receiving incentive funding for Stage 1 of meaningful use
• Plans for purchasing or upgrading ambulatory EHR & PM solutions
• Primary drivers behind decisions to replace current ambulatory EHR & PM solutions
• Strategies for transitioning to accountable care reimbursement models

Vendors mentioned in the report include Acumen, ADP AdvancedMD, Allscripts, Amazing Charts, Aprima, athenahealth, BioMedix, Cerner, CPSI, eClinicalWorks, e-MDs, Epic, GE Healthcare, Greenway, Healthland, HMS, McKesson, Meditech, MedNet, MedPlus, MED3000, NextGen, OptumInsight, Practice Fusion, Siemens and Vitera.