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Interesting article.....

"A new Health Affairs study shows that, not counting Meaningful Use incentives, the average physician would lose nearly $44,000 over five years as the result of implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system. However, the researchers pointed out that some practices in the study had a large return on investment, suggesting that an individual practice's situation and the way it uses its EHR may determine whether it benefits financially or not.

The study looked at the experience of 49 physician practices in three Massachusetts communities. These were among the practices that received free EHRs and implementation support from the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC) with funding from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The practices chose among a few different EHR vendors, which installed their systems in 2006 and 2007. Counting the value of the EHR donation as a cost, the researchers examined the practices' revenues and expenses before and after EHR adoption and then projected these five years forward from 2008.

Five-year return on investment was a negative $43,743 per physician. Only 27% of the practices achieved a positive ROI in this scenario. Primary care practices fared slightly better than specialty practices, and larger practices (those with six or more doctors) did better than smaller practices. Of large practices, 38% achieved a positive ROI, compared to 26% of practices with one or two physicians. "

Thoughts?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Claims_Act

Maybe they are overbilling and this archaic act will solve the problem!!!!

Bob,

I apologize for my failed attempt at humor, but I was a bit shocked when I read in the American Medical News from 3/11/13 the front page article about the old fraud law putting new scrutiny on physicians and the 12 step program to prevent false claim act violations.

So my point being, maybe if we could focus on doctoring instead of having to cover our own behinds, we could be a bit more productive in the office. Especially when we (doctors as a whole) are not trying to bilk the government with fraudulent charges.

It gets really tiring.

The following article explains the underlying motives for the government.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...14033833092.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

At the end of the 4th paragraph, note the point that the expense of EHRs will drive physicians to the ACO model. That implies that the government will keep tightening the screws on EHR requirements until only hospitals can afford them.

I agree that EHRs have pushed/allowed me to bill a lot more 214s than I ever did before when I was dictating everything. The point of my article is that taking the profit incentive away from doctors by working for the local hospital causes a 25%plus decrease in our production, just at the time more patients are getting insurance.

I hear ya.

"the government will keep tightening the screws till..."

Only way to gain power.