Healthcare Reform Noise

Since there is so much noise in the system about the troubled waters President Obama’s overall Healthcare reform package is facing, let’s not forget that Healthcare IT reform is still on pace. The previously approved federal stimulus package included about 10 billion dollars in net Medicare and Medicaid incentives for EHR adoption.

In a recent interview, the National Coordinator for Health IT, David Blumenthal, discussed timetables for electronic health record adoption with American Medical News. Blumenthal said officials are still promoting EHR adoption in an effort to meet the President’s goal of providing all U.S. residents with an EHR by 2014. He also added that his office is still working under the guidelines of the federal economic stimulus law, which imposes penalties on health care providers who do not adopt health IT tools by 2015. However, Blumenthal acknowledged the challenges facing his office and physicians to make this happen but he believes his office and the physicians are up to meeting the challenge.

EHR adoption is alive and well, so now is not the time to let up on pushing EHR solutions. When presenting to clients and the user community it’s imperative that IT professionals deliver a clear and concise message that the current noise in the system does not affect the federal requirement for EHR adoption by 2015.

Read the complete American Medical News article here.