“The biggest barrier to electronic health record (EHR) adoption has always been the upfront cost of implementing the system and the productivity lost during the learning curve. The rapidly changing healthcare landscape, however, may make cost the reason why physicians adopt health IT. Come again?
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a 21.2 percent 2010 pay cut for physicians participating in Medicare. That much of a cut in this kind of economic environment is catastrophic. When any business takes a revenue hit, it compensates by slowing its spending. At the same time, it also looks for efficiencies. Enter health IT and EHRs. The promise of the federal incentive dollars help to blunt the sting of the upfront cost. Now with the 2010 pay cut, physicians now need health IT and EHRs to create efficiencies and potentially be the vehicle for other revenue streams.”
Article
Patty Enrado, EHRWatch, 16 November 2009
