The federal government says it will pay more for Medicare patients’ care as their clinics get electronic medical record equipment. (Cartoon for Slate by Glenn McCoy.)
The announcement is part of the government’s push to have “most” doctors on EMRs (or EHRs) by 2014. The extra money is meant to help pay the cost of computing.
Hospital bureaucrats at an Health and Human Services event all predicted the move will spur adoption of technology by small doctors’ offices.
The government says the main problem is that insurers and employers are capturing the benefits of electronic records while doctors and patients pay the bills.
The government estimates only 10% of medical offices and 5% of solo practitioners have installed electronic records. This doesn’t count those who installed systems which didn’t work, or which failed to keep up with new equipment.
The enormity of the task ahead can also be seen in news that the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration are just now starting to integrate their own electronic health records. A private report on how to do it is expected next year.
Personally I doubt a little boost in Medicare reimbursements is going to convince most medical offices they have to spend the hundreds of thousands needed to automate efficiently.
Standards and an assurance the gear won’t become obsolete would mean a lot more. So would having a solo practitioner at the conference touting all this, as opposed to hospital administrators.
Neither looks to be coming soon.
