Upward movement in an uphill battle
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| Mary Stevens, editor, CMIO magazine |
It continued with the news that more than 23,000 eligible providers have enrolled in the incentive payment process since Jan. 3 and the first Medicaid EHR incentive payments have been made. Then yesterday, the ONC publicized EHR adoption rates for the 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam, and ONC chief David Blumenthal praised the efforts and urged more hospitals and providers to sign up.
If this all seems like excessive hype, read deeper: About 20 percent of non-federal acute care hospitals apparently won’t apply for EHR incentive payments; and at the state level, rates of EHR acceptance among physicians are all over the map, with Utah emerging as the state with the highest percentage of physicians with at least a “basic” EMR installed, as well as the highest rate of EHR adoption. Neither of those rates is even close to 100 percent. Further, a “basic” EMR is not necessarily certifiable for meaningful use.
The figures released yesterday should be seen as a positive—they show U.S. healthcare is moving toward EHRs, as the ONC claims. However, this level of progress also underscores the challenges in getting a decentralized system to some semblance of electronic unity. That’s probably one reason why adoption rates are so disparate. Demographics are likely a factor as well: States with reputations for being health IT innovators—think California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, etc.—tend to have larger populations and more doctors. (A majority of respondents to our soon-to-be published CMIO Compensation Survey hail from these states.)
Utah leads the U.S. among physician adopters, according to the NCHS, with 52 percent reporting at least a basic EMR in place, and an overall adoption rate among primary care physicians of 64 percent. An estimated 49 percent of office-based physicians plan to apply for EHR incentive payments.
If these don’t seem like the statistics of a leader, consider the national averages: According to the NCHS numbers, 24.9 percent of office-based physicians have adopted at least a “basic” EHR, and 41.1 percent of office-based physicians plan to apply for EHR incentive payments.
The ONC is getting the word out. If the numbers aren’t as high as it might like, they do show upward movement.
Is your organization above the national average when it comes to meaningful use plans? Let me know at mstevens@trimedmedia.com
Mary Stevens,
Editor of CMIO