Small and rural U.S. hospitals are most at risk of not satisfying certain federal requirements for using electronic health record systems, a new study reports. Under the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health act, hospitals and healthcare providers must be able to demonstrate by 2015 that their electronic health records systems are capable of certain tasks that constitute “meaningful use.” Providers that don’t meet the requirements in 2015 will start incurring penalties.
“The area where we really see challenges is that there are certain types of hospitals that appear to be moving faster than others,” said Catherine DesRoches, the study’s lead author. ”The further they fall behind, the more at risk they are for penalties.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services oversee an incentive program to promote adoption of EHR systems. Currently, to receive a payment, providers must meet 19 of 24 meaningful-use objectives that include electronically tracking patients’ medications and allergies, sending reminders, sharing lab test results and producing summaries of a patient’s office visit. More than 3,750 hospitals have received a total of $8.8 billion in “meaningful use” incentive payments as of July, according to CMS. Source
