Physician EHR adoption and potentially preventable hospital admissions among Medicare beneficiaries: panel data evidence, 2010-2013

Principal Findings. Each percentage point increase in market-level EHR adoption by physicians is correlated with a statistically significant decline of 1.06 ACSC admissions per 10,000 beneficiaries over the study period, controlling for the overall time trend as well as market fixed effects and characteristics that changed over time. This finding implies 26,689 fewer ACSC admissions in our study population during 2010 to 2013 that were related to physician ambulatory EHR adoption. This represents 3.2 percent fewer ACSC admissions relative to the total number of such admissions in our study population in 2010. We found no evidence of a correlation between EHR use, by either physicians or hospitals, and hospital readmissions at either the market level or hospital level.