KLAS Finds Integration, ROI Hamper Homecare Market

Best-of-breed vendors tend to score higher than enterprise players across the board in the homecare market for meeting complex CMS regulations, but have little to offer providers in the way of interoperability, according to a new KLAS report, Homecare 2011: New Expectations, New Market Energy.

But even enterprise vendors, which typically have the integration advantage, are “miles” from effectively sharing data electronically with hospitals, the organization found. Said report author Erik Bermudez, “Usually enterprise vendors have an interoperability advantage, but that is not the case yet in homecare. Only a couple of vendors are sharing data with affiliated hospitals and clinics — and even they don’t do it well.”

More than half of the study participants expressed that, although their homecare solution allowed them to bill more quickly and accurately, it was difficult to prove their system’s ability to reduce costs.  Additionally, many providers are looking into telehealth as an emerging healthcare paradigm for remotely monitoring patient care, and report that it is hard to justify the large, upfront IT purchase because the return on investment is unclear.

Homecare vendors find themselves in a two-tier market when it comes to performance scoring, stated KLAS, and a 12-point spread separates the leaders from the rest of the field. Findings for homecare best-of-breed vendors include: CareAnyware, Delta, HEALTHCAREfirst, HealthWyse, Homecare Homebase, Procura, and Thornberry.

Enterprise vendors covered in the report are Allscripts, Cerner, McKesson, and Meditech. Epic’s solution has not yet reached the market penetration needed for inclusion in the report.