Report: Health IT stimulus may not be enough

If you suspected that even $19 billion wouldn't be enough cash to get the whole healthcare industry to implement EMRs, you were right. That, at least, is the conclusion drawn by Avalere Health, an information company serving government and healthcare clients.

In its analysis of the health IT stimulus funding, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 90 percent of doctors would be using health IT by 2019 courtesy of the new stimulus package. But that's not how Avalere sees it. In a new report, the firm predicts that as many as half of physicians in small practices might decide to take a pass on EMRs despite stimulus funding.

Avalere researchers concluded that it would cost about $124,000 for a single doctor or small practice to upgrade to EMRs over the five-year period from 2011 to 2015 when the stimulus bill offers incentives to do so. However, the most doctors can get in incentive funding is $44,000. That's a bit of a disconnect, to say the least--particularly when few smaller practices are convinced there will be a return on their investment.

So what about the need to avoid the financial penalties that kick in in 2015 for those who don't buy EMRs? Avalere estimates that the starting penalty would be $5,100 a year, much less than what it would cost to install and maintain an EMR system.

To get more information from the report:
- read this San Francisco Chronicle piece

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Health IT incentives in stimulus could benefit web-based vendors
Health IT stimulus includes Medicare EMR incentives

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