Even as incentives end, EHR market expected to keep growing
Despite the end of Meaningful Use incentive money, the EHR market is likely to continue grpwing over the next four years, according to a report from Kalorama Information.
EHR sales increased by 10 percent between 2012 and 2014, reaching $24.9 billion. The report attributes the growth in large part to hospitals and providers acquiring updated EHR systems.
Among physicians, EHR adoption rates increased from 57 percent in 2011 to 81.4 percent in 2014.
Meanwhile, the report projected that the EHR market will grow to $35.2 billion by 2019 with growth driven by continued EHR adoption among hositals, increased adoption to meet Stage 3 requirements and payment reductions under the incentive program for failing to adopt EHRs.
"Fear of reimbursement loss will end up driving adoption more than incentives for extra reimbursement," according to the report. "Growth will continue at approximately 13.4 percent for 2015-2019 as the 'carrot' of incentives tempts physicians but most importantly as the 'stick' of penalties threaten to impact 2015 revenues."
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.