Health IT Incentives Could Get Cut

Federal financial incentives that are driving billions of dollars of health IT investment could be threatened if deficit-reduction efforts cut Medicare and Medicaid, the Health Information Management Systems Society warns.

The threat looms from multiple fronts, declares HIMSS, a nonprofit industry advocacy group, in a fact sheet released earlier month.

Medicare provider payments will be cut by as much as 2 percent beginning in 2013 if the so-called super committee that is hammering out a deficit-reduction deal does not reach an agreement later this year, or if the House and Senate refuse to ratify the agreement reached by the Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction.

Consequently, incentive payments disbursed to health care providers who are implementing electronic health records also could shrink by 2 percent, slowing implementation and potentially causing financial hardships for adopters of health IT.

Second, the joint committee itself could institute cuts to the incentives as a means of attaining budget savings, HIMSS says. At this time, there is no indication that the committee is considering that option.

"Ultimately, it is hard to predict what ideas might be proposed, as it is true that all ideas are 'on the table,' but that bipartisan support for health IT will be a strong factor in the conversation," HIMSS says in the fact sheet.

The group has formally asked Congress to preserve EHR incentives provided for in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, passed as part of the 2009 economic stimulus bill.