Incentives Drive Meaningful Use

Federal financial incentives designed to spur health care organizations toward meeting meaningful use standards for electronic health records are living up to their name.

Nearly eight of 10 respondents to a recent online survey indicated that they plan to pursue a share of financial incentives worth billions of dollars. Among several new regulatory issues that will have an impact on health care organizations, EHR implementation is the top priority, according to nearly half of respondents. That's not surprising, since noncompliance will eventually result in financial penalties.

The impact of the carrot-and-stick approach taken by the Health and Human Services Department to meaningful use compliance was made clear by the study, conducted by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and published in the September issue of Vantage Point. About three-quarters of respondents said they had analyzed the potential impact of the incentives. Only about a third said they had done the opposite - evaluated the financial impact of penalties.

The survey illustrates how far health care organizations have to go on EHR implementation. Fewer than one in 10 reported having the capacity, at present, to maintain meaningful use compliance for 90 consecutive days. Another 10 percent predicted they would be able to do so by the beginning of next year. That may be because financial incentives go into effect Oct. 1, with the beginning of the new federal fiscal year, and Jan. 1, 2011.

Most said they will achieve meaningful use in 2011 or 2012, but 5 percent noted that they wouldn't attain compliance until 2013 or later. Another 6 percent indicated that they didn't know when they would become meaningful users.

Incentive dollars will be available to health care organizations in the form of Medicare and Medicaid payments. The money comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as stimulus funds.