–Client Survey Results Point to Rapid Adoption
CHICAGO, Feb 17, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ — In letters sent today to
President Obama and members of the United States Congress, Allscripts
congratulated the President and the leadership of Congress on the enactment of
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which for the first time
provides financial incentives to physicians who adopt and use Electronic
Health Record technology (EHR) to improve both the quality and cost-
effectiveness of patient care. Studies demonstrate that effective use of
Electronic Health Records reduces medical errors, improves clinical quality
and leads to better patient outcomes by enabling real-time access to patient
records, medical information and best practices, and electronic connectivity
to all healthcare stakeholders, including patients.
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In addition to its other components focused on economic stimulus, the law
provides $20 billion in health information technology funding. The total
includes $2 billion in discretionary funds and $18 billion for investments and
incentives through Medicare and Medicaid to ensure widespread adoption and use
of interoperable healthcare IT systems such as the Electronic Health Record.
Physicians who have not adopted certified Electronic Health Record systems by
2014 will have their Medicare reimbursements reduced by up to 3 percent
beginning in 2015.
With the stimulus, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
will pay physicians between $44,000 and $64,000 over five years, beginning in
2011, for deploying and using a certified Electronic Health Record to care for
patients. The stimulus package is expected to ignite significant job growth
in the information technology sector and, according to a Congressional Budget
Office review of the legislation’s impact, drive up to 90 percent of US
physicians to adopt Electronic Health Records in the next decade.
A recent Allscripts survey of 1,888 healthcare professionals revealed that
98 percent of physician practices would take advantage of the incentives or
would be closely evaluating the opportunity.
“Enabling a majority of physicians to use electronic health records is the
single most important thing we can do to improve the quality and lower the
cost of healthcare in America,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of
Allscripts. “We applaud President Obama and our Congressional leaders for
recognizing the importance of this life-saving technology to our nation’s
future.”
James R. Morrow, MD, a physician at North Fulton Family Medicine in
Alpharetta, GA who was named Physician IT Leader of the Year by the Health
Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), welcomed news of the new
law’s passage. “In one stroke, Congress has all but removed the biggest
stumbling block to EHR adoption — cost,” Dr. Morrow said. “It’s time for
doctors to stop complaining about the cost of an EHR and take the ball and run
with it toward the goal of better medicine with better records and information
sharing across the healthcare team.”
Dr. Morrow’s 11-physician practice received the coveted Nicholas E. Davies
Award for Excellence from HIMSS in 2004 for demonstrating that their
Allscripts Electronic Health Record saved $1.25 million a year by eliminating
transcription and other costs associated with paper medical records. But Dr.
Morrow insists the “most important reason to adopt the technology is the
quality of care you can deliver for your patients”.
Don Caruso, M.D., Associate Medical Director of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic
in New Bedford, NH also applauded the passage of the stimulus legislation for
its potential to encourage wider physician adoption of Electronic Health
Records.
“For our healthcare system to be all it can be, physicians need to be able
to provide quality care at a consistently high level, and that cannot occur
without an electronic health record,” said Dr. Caruso, who also uses an
Allscripts Electronic Health Record. “The same is true of providing more
cost-effective care — you can’t get there without technology.”
Dartmouth-Hitchcock was one of 10 physician groups nationally to serve as
pilot sites for CMS’s first Pay-For-Quality program, which tested whether
paying physicians to follow best practices using an Electronic Health Record
in the treatment of chronic disease would result in better health outcomes
(and lower costs for Medicare). Dartmouth-Hitchcock received nearly $6
million in performance payments from CMS, the largest performance payment of
all of the pilot groups, for improving the quality and cost efficiency of care
in treating patients with chronic disease between April 2006 and March 2007.
The Clinic was among four pilot groups who together earned $13.8 million in
performance payments in return for saving Medicare $17.4 million, according to
CMS.
Dr. Caruso continued, “Our expectation is that CMS would like to do more
of these programs and with almost $2 billion dollars to distribute, we
believe, hope and expect the incoming Secretary will do just that.”
David Merritt, Project Director of the Center for Health Transformation,
founded by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, commented: “This is a
significant and important down-payment on modernizing our health system
through information technology. Many more physicians and health systems will
soon have the most modern tools in their hands — and patients will receive
better, safer, and more efficient care.”
The Allscripts Electronic Health Record enables physicians to automate
common clinical tasks such as documenting patient care, writing prescriptions,
ordering lab tests and viewing test results with an objective of improving
care. The solution also connects physicians to the latest clinical
information, to other key healthcare stakeholders like pharmacies, labs, and
patients, and to each other, while providing seamless support for Pay-For-
Quality initiatives, and one of the most advanced clinical research support
systems in the industry.
About Allscripts
Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) uses innovation technology to bring health to
healthcare. More than 150,000 physicians, 700 hospitals and nearly 7,000 post-
acute and homecare organizations utilize Allscripts to improve the health of
their patients and their bottom line. The company’s award-winning solutions
include electronic health records, electronic prescribing, revenue cycle
management, practice management, document management, medication services,
hospital care management, emergency department information systems and
homecare automation. Allscripts is the brand name of Allscripts-Misys
Healthcare Solutions, Inc. To learn more, visit https://www.allscripts.com.
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Glen Tullman
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