Health Care Reform and Electronic Medical Records

Health Care Reform and Electronic Medical Records: Not two sides of the same coin

The Health Care Reform debate and the Electronic Medical Records “mandate” are not part of the same issue; they are two separate and distinct major changes in the health care system going on today. The politicians in DC will continue to debate the language and the validity of Health Care Reform and how best to spend over $940 billion dollars in the next 10 years. They will debate how much to spend, what to spend it on, and who gets it.  There is no debate for digitizing America’s medical records. All agree that it will happen and it is happening now – to be done by 2015.

Though a law has not been passed to require the use of an EMR, the word “mandate” has been used quite often. The Federal Government has made incentives-and penalties-for using an EMR/EHR system. They will also be requiring certain reporting by all physicians and will keep a central database. Although these reports can be filled out manually it would be more cumbersome. EMRs are a near future reality in an industry that has stayed the least technological than most any other industry. The great migration from paper to digital is happening now!

The real “mandate” will not really come from the government but from the market. NORC at the University of Chicago published a study recently which found an overwhelming percentage of consumers are very supportive of the adoption of EMRs.

• 78% believe EMR will improve patient care
• 59% believe EMR will reduce health care costs
• 72% support interoperability and information sharing
• 80% support e-prescribing

Not only are the patients favorable to digitizing their medical care but up-and-coming health care providers are expecting to walk in and use computers like they have their whole lives. If a clinic wants to attract younger doctors and have a higher re-sale value they will need to adopt an EMR system.

If everyone seems to be on board with digitizing our medical records why is there a black cloud over the subject? Cost. “Financing is an issue. It’s not just the hardware and software, but also the implementation process. There will be a productivity loss at first”, said Joe Wivoda, a technology consultant for the National Rural Health Resource Center in Duluth. Over half the hospitals who have implemented an EMR went down to less than 5% margins and 25% were running in the red as they got back up to speed, which took months or years. Many are still getting back up to previous numbers. This track record could kill a small clinic that doesn’t have the buffer large hospitals have. Experts say choosing the correct EMR the first time can be one of the biggest decisions a clinic has to make at this time.

Bottom line: you will choose, choose wisely.