Measuring the Impact of Electronic Health Record Adoption on Charge Capture

We examine the impact of electronic health record (EHR) adoption on charge capture-the ability of providers to properly ensure that billable services are accurately recorded and reported for payment. Drawing on billing and practice management data from a large, integrated pediatric primary care network that was previously a paper-based organization, monthly encounter, charge, and collection data were collected from 2008 through 2013. Two-level fixed effects models were built to test the impact of EHR adoption on charge capture. The introduction of the EHR to the pediatric primary care network was independently associated with an $11.09 increase in average per patient charges, an $11.49 increase in average per patient collections, and an improvement in physicians' charge-to-collection ratios. Despite high initial outlays and operating costs related to EHR adoption, these results suggest organizations may recoup many of these costs over the long term.