Sounds good doesn’t it? However, throwing money to hospitals and doctors without a clear view to the technology related issues of EMR (electronic medical records) versus PHR (patient health records) will likely not bring the desired results. Health care record keeping is too complex an issue for us to experience a cassette versus CD battle, or a VHS versus DVD battle, or DVD vs Blue ray battle etc. We need some common ground on which to build a fully integrated, interactive, universal, translatable, dynamic EMR system. As of this moment, that system, despite many vendors and iterations, does not truly exist. Let’s think please before we throw money at a perceived solution which may in the end not be easily adopted . . . obi jo
Obama’s stimulus package includes funding to help physicians adopt electronic records
Five years after President Bush announced plans for Americans’ health records to go digital and didn’t provide enough money to make it happen, only one in five doctors has converted from paper to electronic record keeping.” But, this could soon change, since President-elect Barack Obama has “promised a $50 billion investment to store patient records electronically. His economic stimulus package is expected to contain two year’s worth of funding, or about $20 billion.” The funds “would be distributed to hospitals and doctors through grants, and through higher reimbursement rates when serving Medicare patients.” Notably, “for doctors who do not make the switch, Obama will propose lowering reimbursements from government-subsidized healthcare programs.” According to Kara Calvert, director of government relations for the Information Technology Industry Council, “They’re talking about real dollars that will make a big impact on adoption.”
When Barack Obama takes over the White House next week, this could change. During his campaign for president, Obama promised a $50 billion investment to store patient records electronically. His economic stimulus package is expected to contain two year’s worth of funding, or about $20 billion.
The money would be distributed to hospitals and doctors through grants and through higher reimbursement rates when serving Medicare patients. And for doctors who do not make the switch, Obama will propose lowering reimbursements from government-subsidized health care programs.
Read more @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/14/AR2009011402146.html