by
Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | March 14, 2012
Experts disagree on whether there's proof health information technology, especially electronic medical records, can save the U.S. health system money. Nonetheless, EMR sales appear to be up, according to a new market report teaser from Kalorama Information.
The New York-based firm said EMR sales rose 14.2 percent last year, to reach a market total of $17.9 billion.
Kalorama credited the increase in sales partly to health care providers chasing financial incentives from Medicare and Medicaid by demonstrating "meaningful use" of EMRs, as required by legislation passed in 2009. Since last year, the first year incentive payments went out, more than 43,000 providers have netted more than $3.1 billion from the program, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
However, Medicare's carrot wasn't the only factor luring physicians to adopt EMRs, Kalorama said.
"The incentives and the potential penalty are important, but so is getting the health record to the provider when he or she is in front of a patient," Bruce Carlson, Kalorama's publisher, said in a statement.
As of last year, about 57 percent of office-based doctors used full or partial EMRs, Kalorama said, citing the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
To calculate the report, Kalorama said it took into account not just software, but also consulting, training and service fees, which are an "important part" of the industry's business models.
