Medicare encouraging EMR's

Medicare is making announcements to entice physicians to go electronic in order to receive more in reimbursements.

Beginning in the spring of 2008, CMS plans to recruit physicians for a demonstration program that, by the end of 2009, will begin paying them bonuses for using EHRs to improve the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries.

If this is like any other CMS program, it will be time consuming, paper intensive, and overall not worth the pittance in what they may pay as a “bonus”

The five-year pilot project will involve up to 1,200 small and medium-sized practices—mostly primary care—in 12 markets that have yet to be chosen.

During the first two years of the project, physicians will receive bonuses (the size is still undetermined) for acquiring and using the EHRs in quality improvement.

In year’s three to five, they'll have to meet specific quality goals to continue receiving extra payments. These really are not extra payments. CMS plans to cut reimbursement and then use the money they save from the cuts to pay a bonus to those physicians who choose to jump through the hurdles of the CMS nightmare oversight.

To qualify for the program, practices must use EHRs certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology although that list is not yet available in its entirety.

CMS says it will pay its first bonuses after collecting a year's worth of data but none of us are holding our breath!