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RM: Doctors Subsidized to go Electronic
In an effort to move beyond the talk and to push more doctors, clinics and health care providers into using electronic records management, the US Department of Health and Human Services has a plan. Under their new five-year plan announced by the department some health providers will receive incentives to adopt the use of electronic health records. These systems are used by physicians for ordering prescriptions and managing patient data.
The new incentives are intended to motivate doctors to adopt more and better automated processes. To date, reluctance of doctors to adopt electronic health records have been the main barrier to the use of these systems. Today only about 10 percent of multi-doctor practices have gone electronic, while only 5 percent of single doctor offices are using the technology. Doctors cite the cost and time involved to learn the systems as the main reasons for their reluctance.
Next spring Medicare and Medicaid will select 1200 3-5 doctor practices and reward them with higher reimbursements to help doctors offset the costs involved in setting up Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems, and the training and support involved with these systems. These practices serve approximately 3.6 million patients.
Doctors will begin receiving higher reimbursements during the first year of the plan once they show that they have adopted a certified EHR system. Later in the program, the incentives rise when the practices show they can compare their EHR usage with national averages. And then incentives rise further when the practices can show that they are improving the quality of the care that they provide.
Subsidies can help the process. But patients who are involved in receiving quality health care should also get involved and let their doctors know that they want their records in digital format.
