Fueled by incentives, now is the time to invest in an EMR
The road to electronic health record (EHR) adoption just got a little sweeter for physicians with President Obama’s recent signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (The specifics of the plan put forth by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can be found here: HHS Program Plan).
Widely referred to as the economic stimulus package, the act provides approximately $35 Billion in Medicare and Medicaid incentives to eligible professionals for “meaningful use” of qualified EHR systems in their practices (use of a hospital EHR does not qualify the physician or provider for these incentives).
One thing is clear — physicians must actively use an EHR to take advantage of these economic stimulus package incentives or other bonuses noted below. Likewise, beginning in 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will impose penalties for eligible providers who do not begin using an EHR. Eligible practices could miss out on thousands of dollars in potential bonus payments by postponing their adoption of information technology.
The time, therefore, is now to understand the key benefits of EHRs and the various financial incentives that exist to encourage physician adoption.
(The above information provided courtesy of Cerner HealthCare Information Systems)
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Key Questions to ask when evaluating an EMR
We have written our own list of questions for you to ask your potential vendors when reviewing any EMR product. Review these questions with your potential vendors, then check with us to see how we compare. We think you’ll be pleased.