| The Mixed Blessing of EMRs |
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| Written by Cynthia Atoji | ||||||||
| Monday, 15 June 2009 14:26 | ||||||||
 While the president stumps for healthcare reform, here is yet another reminder of how EMRs (Electronic Medical Records) just might not be the instant cure that fixes the ailing healthcare system. The Obama administration is making an ambitious push to accelerate the adoption of EMRs, with the goals of lowering the cost of care, improving outcomes, and widening access. But the computerization of health records is a “steamroller” that threatens small physician group practices and might force further consolidation in the vendor marketplace, says Cambridge, Mass., business analyst Leonard Fuld, who shared his “war game” findings with the New York Times. Fuld predicts that the complexity and cost of implementing EHRs will overwhelm “hundreds of thousands of doctors in small practices,” prompting them to combine with group practices. And, if this business forecasting proves correct, expect health IT companies like Cerner, Allscripts, and Epic to become acquisition targets for Fortune 500 giants like Microsoft, Oracle, and I.B.M. and the already-familiar McKesson. In an ever-changing EMR field, this doesn’t have the promise of stability, even with ever-progressing CCHIT certification. But, on the other hand, this might have a promising end-result, allowing for lower costs and better technology for clinicians. Speaking of EMRs, one state medical group, Maryland’s MedChi, will urge the American Medical Association at a meeting this week in Chicago to put pressure on the feds to delay or eliminate penalties for doctors who don’t adopt electronic records by 2015, the mandated deadline. The cost of launching a health information system can be as much as $80,000, a burdensome price tag, especially with lower reimbursement rates and high malpractice premiums. But despite all the naysayers, dire predictions, and delays, using an EMR versus paper, in the end, is a no-brainer and inevitable. And deep adoption by physicians is critical to the success of any EMR implementation. | ||||||||
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About the Author: Jeff Merron is a full-time freelance editor, journalist, and copywriter who has written for the New York Times Magazine, ESPN.com, Slate, Byte Magazine, Macworld, Consumers Digest, and many other national publications. He's also a regular contributor to IT Business Insider and 108, a baseball magazine. He has a Ph.D. in Mass Communication Research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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