For a preview of the kind of world which many health policy wonks in Washington want, just take a look in the direction of Silicon Valley. Yesterday, Intel, Cisco and Oracle announced an initiative that will encourage local physicians to adopt electronic health records and other health IT systems. The Silicon Valley Pay-for-Performance Consortium will award $150,000 annually to practices that excel in using technologies like electronic health records, ePrescribing and secure messaging to communicate with patients. There is a catch, though. Practices must participate in the ongoing National Committee for Quality Assurance study on IT adoption to be eligible.
- see this article from the San Jose Mercury News