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billion in bonus paymentas for doctors to purchase electronic medical record (EMR) systems. And if doctors still pass up the offer, the governmenyt will have a stick waiting for them in the form of reduceddpayment rates. The push to buy EMR systems has caused an immediate spike in interesr at many South Florida healt informationtechnology companies. Sales have been up 250 month-over-month, from January through March, said Andrew president and CEOof Miami-based . His company, whichh sells a Web-based EMR system, recently hired six people.
Beforwe the stimulus package, people thought it was a great but “now, there’s actually substanc e and funds to support the initiative,” Carricartse said. “Now, the physicians are calling us.” The stimulus bill givesa doctors who use an approved EMR systejm bonus payments from and Medicaid billingx from 2011through 2015. The earlier a doctor digitizesan office, the more incentives the doctor standsw to collect. A doctor who has an EMR in placw by 2011 wouldenjoy $44,0090 in Medicare bonuses over the next five years.
the bill says that doctors who don’t have an EMR startint in 2015 would get their Medicaree payments reduced by 1 percent each The EMR system offered by IOS Healtnh Systemscosts $399 a month – just undetr $24,000 over five years. A docto would earn more than that in stimulus bonusx paymentsthrough Medicare. Besides the new governmenyt incentives, there are other economic benefits to usinhg anEMR system. Sandy Dominguez, the officew manager for the internal medical practic eof Dr. Bernhard L. Brijbag in Coralp Gables, said using IOS’ EMR system has improveds the workflow. It also reducedf costs for employee overhead andpaper expenses.
“There is more time now with our instead ofgoing crazy, looking for a chart if it’ds lost,” Dominguez said. The cost of EMR systems has come down dramaticallg from fouryears ago, when most companiees offered software programs and specialized hardware with startu costs in the tens of thousands of dollars. Doctorw using a Web-based system usually just needInterney access. A handheld device to document patient encounters withouty scanning notepadsis optional.
Health care is the biggesft untapped market forinformatiob technology, said Pete the former head of ’s Boca Raton operations who is now with Wellington-basee ( : QGP) as senior VP and chierf technology and innovations officer. His compant offers a Web-based EMR that doublesw as a personal health recordfor patients. Whilr he’s excited about the potential of the stimulu s acceleratingEMR adoption, Martinez said the incentives should not be used to allos doctors to stick with the older software-based Martinez called these systems “abysmak failures.” These systems are more expensive and don’gt communicate efficiently with othed providers, he said.
“If we use this to fund somethinbg that’s not working, we are wasting our Martinez said. “The stimulus package shoul be a catalystfor change. I would put it into programsd that areall Web-based.” The has not yet specified what type of EMRs woulfd qualify doctors for the incentives. An additional $2 billion in stimulus fundint was budgetedfor grants, loans and demonstrationn projects through the federal Officse of the Coordinator for Health Informatioh Technology. This includes support for regionapl and state healthinformation exchanges.
Carricarte said IOS woulde like to get in on this by applyinh for a demonstration program to look at using EMRs in neighborhoox clinics in partnership witha university.
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