The intent of the federally funded regional extension centers is to encourage providers to adopt EMRs by disseminating best practices for adoption. But blogger and health IT consultant Joseph Ingemi believes they are being set up to fail in two areas. First, Ingemi writes on our Hospital Impact blog, the REC don't get around the issue of some providers simply not wanting to adopt EMRs. "Providers tend to focus on innovation that allows them to deliver more billable services and/or speed up payment. From the providers' perspective, EMRs do not facilitate this goal. RECs do not provide a solution to this psychological obstacle," he says. And second, Ingemi wonders if the RECs will really be more than "cattle calls" to connect providers to preferred vendors. Hospital Impact