As we close out 2009 it’s important to reflect on how our health care system was changed at the beginning of the year with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), HITECH incentivizes physicians to adopt electronic health records and electronic prescribing to the tune of $44,000 per physician under Medicare and $63,750 per physician under Medicaid.

However, in order to qualify for these HITECH payouts, physicians must use an electronic health records systems certified by HHS and meet the “meaningful use” criteria currently being finalized by National Health IT coordinator David Blumenthal. A final rule should be ready in the Spring of 2010. Hospitals have until Oct 1, 2010 to meet standards, followed by physicians, who have until 2011.  Current guidelines for “meaningful use” include electronic prescribing, data exchange beyond the walls of the organization, and quality measurements. Until the definition is finalized, the HHS has launched new blog Health IT Buzz for all parties involved to discuss the activities of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on the road toward digitalization.  Most recently HHS has also offered $60 million in grants to put together Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) to focus on barriers to health IT.

Physicians most likely to be currently taking advantage of electronic health records include emergency medicine physicians, endocrinologists, hematology oncologists, orthopedic surgeons, and medical oncologists. At the other end of the spectrum, we see ophthalmologists, allergists, psychiatrists, general surgeons, and ob/gyns to be the least likely current users of such systems.

We see electronic health record use to be positively associated with use of smartphones/PDAs, use of the Internet during patient consultations, and use of online communication with patients. Perhaps the biggest predictor of electronic health record use is practice type, with those using electronic health records being 2.4 times more likely than solo practice physicians to work with the technology – a digital divide which has remained over the past few years.

To help close this gap, companies like GE are offering interest-free loans on electronic health records systems through the Stimulus Simplicity program to hold physicians over until HITECH payouts become available.  Additionally, San-Francisco-based company Practice Fusion offers a web-based EMR system completely free through an ad-supported product.

Look for our Physician 2012 Part 2 module to be released in January which goes into detail on electronic health records, electronic prescribing, and patient-physician connectivity.

That concludes today’s podcast.  Thanks for joining us.  If you have any question, comments or ideas for a podcast please feel free to contact podcast@manhattanresearch.com.

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