Medicare Issues Proposed Rules for Electronic Health Record Incentive Program

All new Social Security disability claims are electronic. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued proposed rules (PDF version here) to provide incentives for health care providers to move to an electronic format. Anecdotally, this is a huge headache for doctors around the country who want to move electronic records for efficiency purposes but who are faced with scores of choices related to the software programs available. Of course, the programs are very expensive and the transition from paper to digital files creates an increased workload in the short term (and the short term is really undefined). The government is providing financial incentives for these moves but we’ll still end up with doctors who are using different software programs to document patient care. When patients move around the country, how will there records follow?

Tagged as: medical records