Business intelligence in an era of reform: strategies for improvement.

Business intelligence—a provider’s ability to collect, analyze, and connect accurate quality and financial data to support decisions that improve the value of care—is one of four key capabilities identified by HFMA’s Value Project that hospitals and health systems should cultivate as they adapt to value-based business models for payment and care delivery. But the quality of data that these organizations have access to—for measuring both the quality of care that they deliver and how much it costs to provide care—is not very good, healthcare leaders agree. They identify a lack of timely and effective business intelligence as a barrier to improving value in health care.