MU has led to digital divide

A study of New York providers participating in the Meaningful Use (MU) incentive program found "systematic differences" between early adopters of EHRs and those who did not use EHRs before implementation of the program.

The study, published in Health Affairs, analyzed MU participation among more than 26,000 physicians in New York between 2011 and 2012.

The researchers examined payment data. In 2011, about 80 percent of New York physicians did not participate in MU but the rate  increased significantly in 2012.

According to the study, participation in the Medicaid incentive program increased by 2.4 percentage points between 2011 and 2012, while participation in the Medicare incentive program rose by 15.8 percentage points.

Early EHR adopters were more likely to continue participating in MU and "less likely to be nonparticipants or late adopters or to skip a program year," compared with physicians who did not use EHRs until after the incentive program started, according to the findings.

Early adoption of EHRs also was associated with access to resources and organizational support for EHR implementation; increased financial capacity; and prior experience with health IT.

The findings suggest that MU helped advance EHR adoption but using the systems consistently poses its own barriers leading to a gap in quality among providers.