SAN FRANCISCO - July 20, 2010 - Last week's announcement of final guidelines for medical providers and EHR vendors has officially kicked off the national health IT transition. As part of the 2009 economic stimulus plan (ARRA), billions have been earmarked to incentivize the Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology in the US. Eligible medical providers can each qualify for $44,000+ in stimulus incentives starting in 2011, incentives that will drive health IT adoption and could bring as much as $4 billion to individual states.
Practice Fusion has researched the total EHR incentives at stake in each state based on the number of eligible medical providers. These totals reflect the incentives that could be paid directly to physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants as a boost to local economies. The fastest growing EHR community in the country, Practice Fusion works daily with medical practices making the switch from paper charts to the company's free, web-based EHR system. Company experts are available to discuss the relevance of these figures compared to state demographic and health quality data.
State EHR Incentive Potential
- California, $4.60 billion
- New York, $3.52 billion
- Florida, $2.39 billon
- Texas, $2.37 billion
- Pennsylvania, $1.84 billion
- Illinois, $1.52 billion
- Ohio, $1.44 billion
- Massachusetts, $1.36 billion
- New Jersey, $1.27 billion
- Michigan, $1.25 billion
- Virginia, $1.05 billion
- North Carolina, $1.03 billion
- Georgia, $1.01 billion
- Maryland, $1.00 billion
- Washington, $871 million
- Tennessee, $804 million
- Missouri, $755 million
- Arizona, $718 million
- Wisconsin, $713 million
- Indiana, $686 million
- Minnesota, $683 million
- Connecticut, $618 million
- Colorado, $617 million
- South Carolina, $567 million
- Oregon, $523 million
- Louisiana, $506 million
- Kentucky, $483 million
- Alabama, $475 million
- Oklahoma, $334 million
- Kansas, $322 million
- Mississippi, $316 million
- Iowa, $313 million
- Arkansas, $306 million
- Utah, $290 million
- District of Columbia, $266 million
- Nevada, $235 million
- New Mexico, $227 million
- West Virginia, $215 million
- Maine, $209 million
- Nebraska, $198 million
- Hawaii, $192 million
- Rhode Island, $180 million
- Idaho, $140 million
- Delaware, $124 million
- Montana, $115 million
- Vermont, $108 million
- Alaska, $100 million
- South Dakota, $89 million
- North Dakota, $78 million
- New Hampshire, $77 million
- Wyoming, $62 million
"The EHR incentive plan was created, not to just dramatically improve the safety and quality of healthcare, but also to provide an economic stimulus to the country," said Practice Fusion CEO, Ryan Howard. "By providing incentives to physicians, ARRA has already created a booming health IT sector with opportunities for health IT professionals, hardware manufacturers, technology companies, medical providers and local healthcare organizations. As the EHR transition timeline approaches and incentives begin to be paid in 2011, we will see the real impact of Washington's EHR campaign at the local level."
The new EHR stimulus criteria include 15 mandatory tasks and 10 "a la carte" menu items, from which the provider needs to accomplish five. Broadly, medical providers will need to begin electronically recording patient health data, providing patients with access to their health information, e-prescribing, using interaction warning and clinical decision support tools, linking together different parts of the healthcare systems and reporting quality measures for public health monitoring using a certified EHR system.
Practice Fusion can connect reporters to local medical professionals who have completed or are in the process of making the EHR transition. Medical providers are available to share response to the new criteria, thoughts about stimulus incentives and plans for using the $44,000 bonus. Visit www.practicefusion.com or EHRbloggers.com for more analysis on Meaningful Use.
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About Practice Fusion
Practice Fusion provides a free, web-based Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system to physicians. With charting, scheduling, e-prescribing, billing, lab integrations, unlimited support and a Personal Health Record for patients, Practice Fusion's EMR addresses the complex needs of today's healthcare providers and disrupts the health IT status quo. Practice Fusion is the fastest growing EMR community in the country with more than 43,000 users. Salesforce.com and Morgenthaler Ventures each own a minority interest in Practice Fusion. For more information on Practice Fusion, please visit practicefusion.com.
About the ARRA
On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law a plan for economic recovery designed to pull the United States out of a deep recession. Encompassing $789 billion in funding for stimulus programs, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included $19 billion under the HITECH Act to promote the adoption of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) technology in healthcare. Individual doctors and eligible medical providers can receive $44,000 or more for "Meaningful Use" of an EHR system starting in 2011.
Hallema Sharif Clyburn
New York: 516.395.3630
[email protected]
Helen Phung
San Francisco: 415.992.7726
[email protected]