Primary care providers: HIT is a positive disruption

Primary care providers' have mixed views when it comes to changes in healthcare delivery and payment, but many see health information technology as a positive disruption.

Health IT received the most positive ratings from providers when it comes to new care models, which also include medical homes and affordable care organizations, according to a briefing by The Commonwealth Fund and The Kaiser Family Foundation. For the briefing, more than 1,600 primary care doctors and 525 clinicians working in primary care practices were surveyed between January and March of this year.

Half of physician respondents said that health IT is having a positive impact on quality of care delivery, while 64 percent of nurse practitioners and physician assistants said the same.

However, PCMHs have been shown to reduce healthcare costs, overuse of the emergency department and overall inpatient hospitalizations, according to a report from the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative.