The abstract of her project is pasted below.
Abstract
Objectives:
Recent guidelines introduced by the Affordable Care Act for the Medicare Annual
Wellness Visit specify the use of a health risk assessment (HRA). Benefits of
employer- or insurance-based HRAs are known but limited scholarship has
addressed healthcare-based HRAs. The objective of this study was to measure primary
care provider’s perceptions and acceptance of using HRAs in patient care.
Methods:
Provider survey scales were authored from theory driven model constructs
and distributed to primary care providers first in an academic, safety-net
medical center and then through a local practice-based research network.
Results:
113 primary care providers responded. Only 53.3% had ever even heard or read
about a HRA and just 24.3% had asked a patient to use one, but over half were
interested in using one with patients.
Conclusions:
There is low knowledge and use of HRAs by this group of providers despite
inclusion of the tool in the ACA and proposed benefits to patients and
providers, none of which can be realized if providers do not know about or are
unwilling or unable to use health risk assessments in primary care practice.
