Implementing technology should be a cost of doing business for healthcare providers, as it is in other professions, according to National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari. In a frank interview with AAFP News Now, Mostashari also stated that he expected physician dissatisfaction with electronic health records to rise as implementation goes beyond the early adaptors, and said that physicians won’t necessarily see a return on investment if they’re involved in fee-for-service medicine, since much of the benefit of EHRs is focused on quality, safety and engagement, which aren’t reflected in reimbursement.
Mostashari also said that physicians won’t see productivity gains if all they’re doing is replicating their existing paper processes, noting that ONC “needs to look at the data carefully.” Some of the attention to EHRs are skewed or “counterintuitive” in that while more than 80 percent of studies show that the technology improves patient care, he said. Interview
