Non-profit hospitals offering EMRs to MDs, but cautiously

It's been about a year since the IRS officially declared that under the right circumstances, it was perfectly fine with not-for-profit hospitals and systems giving EMRs to affiliated physicians [1]. Since that time, the not-for-profits have gradually begun to take advantage of the ruling, though many have spent a long time feeling things out before they moved ahead.

That may be, in part, because like all IRS gifts, the memo came with obligations, too. For example, the agency's memo requires that hospitals be able to access the records the physicians create with the technology the hospital donated--at least within HIPAA guidelines and state privacy rules. Another rule is that the EMRs must be made available to all physicians with staff privileges at a given facility, and that the subsidy must be the same for everyone or vary by criteria related to community needs.

Over the past year, not-for-profits have worked cautiously, careful to set up EMRs that comply with these and other conditions, as well as conforming with HHS rules on this subject. For example, while planning the rollout of its $8.3 million rollout of GE's Centricity system, Falls Church, Va.-based Inova Health System has stayed in touch with the IRS to make sure they're in compliance. Inova is offering the 3,000 community physicians on staff with its hospitals a deeply discounted per-physician fee for assessment, planning, training, implementation and licensing of the EMR.

To learn more about this trend, including several hospital and health system examples:
- read this Modern Healthcare article [2] (reg. req.)

Related Articles:
IRS gives physician EMR donations the OK [1]
HHS, IRS rulings on donations clash [3]
Legal or not, EMR donations still chancy [4]