# Understanding the Impact of Health Information Exchange-Enabled Care Plans to Coordinate Care among High-Need, High-Cost Patients

> **NIH AHRQ K08** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2020 · $27,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT:
High-need, high-cost patients (HNHC) often experience poor coordination of care, a key driver
of increased cost and utilization. Healthcare organizations and policymakers are investing in
care coordination mechanisms that combine health information exchange with individualized
care plans to fix the fragmented care HNHC patients receive, but evidence for these
approaches is limited. In 2012, the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA), which
oversees the state Medicaid program, implemented a health information exchange (HIE) across
all hospitals referred to as the Emergency Department Information Exchange. As part of HIE
implementation, HCA provides financial incentives to hospitals to develop individualized care
plans to improve care coordination for Emergency Department (ED) high utilizers (≥ 5 ED visits
per year). The current project seeks to apply advanced quantitative methods in causal
inference, comparative effectiveness, and qualitative methods to understand gaps in our
knowledge in the use of HIE-enabled care plans to improve care coordination for HNHC
patients. To accomplish this research, I will link an existing Washington State Medicaid dataset
to patients who received a care plan in EDIE. Working under the mentorship of experts in health
service research, I will: (1) measure the impact of HIE-supported care plans on healthcare
utilization among HNHC patients (2) identify subgroups of HNHC patients with lower ED
healthcare utilization after receipt of a care plan (3) describe the implementation of HIE-care
plans and content of care plans in HNHC patients. These studies will inform healthcare systems
on ways to improve care coordination for complex patient populations. This work will also help
me establish a set of skills to become an independent investigator addressing the gaps in care
coordination for HNHC populations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10013221
- **Project number:** 5K08HS025461-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Ashok Reddy
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $27,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-30 → 2023-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10013221

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10013221, Understanding the Impact of Health Information Exchange-Enabled Care Plans to Coordinate Care among High-Need, High-Cost Patients (5K08HS025461-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10013221. Licensed CC0.

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