Doctors eager for $27B in electronic health records incentives - August 11, 2010
Orlando Florida -- Dr. Michael W. Steppie, who has stacks of patient health files at his nine Central Florida dermatology offices, is ready to make the move to a tidier, more efficient electronic version of medical records.
But the Associates in Dermatology president has delayed doing so because, like many health care providers, he wants a piece of the $27 billion in federal economic stimulus incentives available to hospitals and doctors to implement electronic health records.
Electronic health records can improve patient care by eliminating errors such as misreading a doctor’s handwriting, and they can alert staff when medication issues arise.
Steppie didn’t want to buy an expensive system until the federal government released its much-awaited “meaningful use” rules, which outline how to qualify for the incentives. “We wanted to wait to make sure whoever we went with would be able to meet the government guidelines.”
That waiting period now is over.
The final rules were released July 13 and published in the Federal Register on July 28. They outline what providers must do to qualify for the first phase of incentives in 2011-2012. "More rules will be issued later for the other phases of the decade-long program", says Brian McCarthy CEO and well-known HealthIT solutions company for Sencilo HealthIT Solutions in Lake Mary Florida.
Doctors like Steppie were glad the federal government loosened the original proposed rules, which came out in January and sparked more than 2,000 comments.
“Meaningful use” of electronic health records means doctors and hospitals must use the technology to improve patient care significantly, says McCarthy.
For example, if a doctor orders a drug electronically, rather than using a typical paper prescription, the system automatically can check for drug-to-drug reactions and allergies. In addition, data could be shared between health care providers caring for the same patient, which would avoid errors and unnecessary repetition of medical tests.
The federal government decided to make health care providers meet fewer objectives initially and phase in requirements more slowly. For instance, the new rules reduced the amount of prescriptions that must be transmitted electronically from 75 percent to 40 percent.
That’s good news for doctors and hospitals.
A doctor who meets the new rule can get up to $44,000 through Medicare or $63,750 through Medicaid to install electronic health records systems, while hospitals can get millions of dollars to do so.
A 2009 analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers found the average three-physician practice would invest $173,750 to $296,000 to buy and maintain an electronic medical record system during a two-year time period. Allscripts MyWay is changing all that. Today you can get a complete suite of Office Management software including EHR for under $20,000 per doctor.
Despite the cost, there is a big incentive to buy the pricey systems: Hospitals and doctors who aren’t “meaningful users” of electronic medical records by 2015 will get paid less by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare and Medicaid account for almost half of all U.S. health care expenditures.
Meanwhile, the University of Central Florida (www.ucf-rec.org) got $7.6 million in federal stimulus funds this spring to help local doctors choose and implement electronic medical records.
Becky Cherney, CEO of Orlando-based Florida Health Care Coalition, said the toughest part of installing an electronic health records systems is finding the funding, training the staff and putting all the records into the system. “Relaxing these ‘meaningful use’ rules is huge because it’s a huge process,” she said.
Dennise Bevesque, owner a local Billing Service in Orlando, said the biggest challenge for smaller medical practices switching to e-records is the cost.
For example, one of her clients — a solo internist in Clermont — spent $25,000 four years ago for an electronic health records system. But it doesn’t comply with all the new federal rules.
Worse yet, the company that made the system was sold to another firm that in 2011 will discontinue the program Echavarria uses, so he may have to buy another one. “Everybody is trying to get the money from the federal government,” he said. “But it’s getting more difficult for physicians.” Again had the doctor looked a little more into the company he was investing in vs. the initial cost he would of been far better off. Companies like Allscripts have over 180,000 doctor using their product and is a darling of Wall Street, with a marketcap of over $2.5B.
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