With the adoption of any new technology, there will be a perfect bell curve each time. However, EMR adoption was accelerated by the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, also known as Meaningful Use. By providing a financial incentive, Meaningful Use sped the process up by approximately 7-10 years.
The maximum incentive possible from Medicare in 2009-2011 was $44,000. The maximum allowed if you get up and running by the end of 2013 is $5,000 less than that, which is still a lot less than the cost of implementing a new EMR. The Medicare incentive was never intended to make a qualified physician rich, but it does contribute towards the costs of buying an EMR and the hardware to run it on, plus implementation, training, and the office’s downtime during this process. Regardless of whether you believe EMRs will improve healthcare or not, if you have a use for an EMR and you believe in technology, and you are a qualified physician earning $20,000 or more in Medicare payments, don’t waste any more time. You should be jumping on this now!
Think about this: if someone is giving you $39,000 to get software, training, a new server, and new workstations, and that software will improve your practice’s workflow while providing better charting methods, you’d be passing up a great opportunity if you let that go by.
Some of the top names in EMRs today include Medisoft Clinical, Lytec MD, McKesson Practice Choice, and Greenway PrimeSUITE.
