by
Olga Deshchenko, DOTmed News Reporter | January 13, 2011
Four-fifths of the country's hospitals and 41 percent of office-based physicians plan to take advantage of the financial incentives tied to the meaningful use of electronic health records, according to new data released Thursday.
The survey results were released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on the heels of the
registration kickoff for Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs just last week.
The data come from surveys commissioned by ONC and gathered during the annual surveillance by the American Hospital Association and the National Center for Health Statistics.
According to AHA data, more than 81 percent of hospitals intend to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs and qualify for the incentives. About 65 percent said they will enroll into the programs to meet the stage one measures in 2011-2012.
The NCHS survey found that 41 percent of office-based doctors plan to meet meaningful use and reap the financial rewards - 32.4 percent of physicians will apply for stage one. Only 14 percent of doctors said they weren't planning to apply for the incentives.
More primary care physicians have begun using basic EHRs, up from 19.8 percent in 2008 to 29.6 percent in 2010, the NCHS survey found.
"We are pleased to see this evidence of an enthusiastic early response, and we believe participation will continue to grow, especially as the nation's physicians become more familiar with this one-time opportunity to improve care while helping to offset the costs of adopting EHR systems," Dr. Donald Berwick, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in prepared remarks.
Non-hospital based physicians and other eligible professionals can receive as much as $44,000 under Medicare or $63,750 under Medicaid in incentives for adequately demonstrating meaningful use through the use of EHRs. Hospitals can receive millions of dollars for implementing certified EHR technology and meeting ONC and CMS' meaningful use objectives.
The incentive payments are a part the provisions in the Health Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009.
