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February 28, 2009Despite the funding incentives recently passed in the economic stimulus to encourage physician EMR adoption, some within the industry think that the current economic challenges, such as reduced capital and decreasing patient volume, may still hold back the physicians who have been hesitant up to this point, for whatever reason, to make the investment into EMR integration. From HealthDataManagement.com:
“The federal I.T. incentive plan may appear to be an enormous carrot, dangling potentially tens of thousands of dollars before physician practices that adopt clinical I.T.
“Yet, given the woeful state of the economy, after-the-fact adoption incentives alone may not be enough to motivate physician practices to join the digital fold, observes Tim Zoph, vice president and CIO at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago.
“Given the state of the economy, with a drop off in patient volume, many physicians feel their practices are at risk,” he notes. “As we talk about payment incentives, it is a difficult notion for practices to think about the amount of investment and change they must make when the economy is not doing well.”
Read the full article: “Does Stimulus Misread Physician Economics?” Another article on this site reports that consultants are recommending that smaller physician group practices interested in grabbing financial incentives under the economic stimulus package should strongly consider buying electronic health records software with a partner who has greater purchasing power. On the other hand, other EMR implementation industry consultants are advising that provider organizations hoping to get Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for “meaningful” use of electronic health records need to start working right now to be ready in time.
Other healthcare decision makers are echoing this sentiment:
“Hospitals and physicians should begin planning the rollout of electronic health records systems now to gain maximum financial incentives under the federal economic stimulus package. That’s the advice of H. Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Chicago. (read more here)”
Lieber goes on to say that although the stimulus package includes some funding for grants and loans, most providers will have to make their own upfront investments in technology. Whatever the outcome, the majority of the industry is praising the recent HITECH funding package and setting up information and support networks to help physicians make the switch, such as McKesson’s Achieve IT physician information site. More updates and commentary soon.
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