Private Sector, Not Government, Will Drive EMR Usage Uptake

Vendors and hospitals that affiliate with the physicians, and not government initiatives, will ultimately determine if doctors in the United States adopt electronic medical records (EMRs), according to a new report from Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA), a healthcare market research firm.

According to the report, solo practices or small group practice-based physicians have fewer savings to reap than large healthcare systems from the adoption of EMRs, and the change in their workflow will likely reduce short-term productivity when they make the switch. The announcement of U.S. government incentives of up to US$18,000 in increased Medicare payments to doctors for the meaningful use of EMR has created interest among physicians; but these incentives represent future payouts for EMR systems that physicians have to pay for immediately, at a time when patients are paying bills slower, expenses are rising, and some physicians are reducing staff, all factors that explain why surveys indicate low usage of EMR among U.S. physicians.

To encourage implementation of EMR among these smaller practices, health systems and hospital are offering subsidies of up to $40,000 over five years to physicians who implement EMR systems. Some of the healthcare systems adopting these strategies are Tufts Medical Center (Boston, MA, USA), Beth Israel Deaconess (Boston, MA, USA), and North Shore – Long Island Jewish Health System (New York, NY, USA); Kalorama information predicts that these initiatives will be emulated by other health systems.

The report also notes that vendor actions have enhanced the effect of government incentives. Stimulus guarantees, where the vendor assures the customer that the system will earn stimulus incentives from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS; Baltimore, MD, USA), have garnered interest. Athena Health, ChartLogic, e-MDs, and GE Healthcare are among the vendors who have adopted some form of this strategy. Given the precarious state of some physician practices, Kalorama Information expects vendors to go further, offering aggressive financing and installment of the capital outlay to attract small group practices.

"There's a lot of focus right now on the incentives, but we think what vendors and health systems do to piggyback off these incentives is even more important,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information. "A body at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. We think that hospitals and large health systems will need to have parallel incentives in order for the EMR concept to happen in a meaningful way.”

Kalorama Information has found that the EMR market will come in at $13.8 billion for 2009, which is not up to its full potential.

Related Links:
Kalorama Information
Tufts Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess
U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services