The Medical Blog

The passage of the HITECH Act under ARRA has brought whirlwind changes and generated many questions in the electronic health record field. The ONC certification program is among them. While the six ONC-ATCBs have been approved to administer ONC-approved testing and certification, there are differences between them.

Intuit has a large presence among SMBs in most vertical industries aside from healthcare. They have muscled their way to significant market share in the retail, manufacturing, distribution, nonprofit, property management, and construction industries primarily through its QuickBooks product line.

Last week Microsoft announced it is entering into a partnership with Athena to make their systems more compatible. The move was predicated on two hospital clients building bridges between Amalga and AthenaClinicals to share patient information. Is this the first step toward an EHR acquisition?

We might say, social media has a tremendous opportunity to improve healthcare. But doctors have been slow to adopt social media. Why? Why aren’t they using social media to talk with other professionals, connect with patients and share information with the public? The time commitment, concerns of liability, and naiveté are cited as major causes.

And we’re off! More than 21,000 healthcare providers have registered for Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs. Additionally, four states have already paid out initial incentive payments, totaling over $20 million. We’re excited to see the HITECH Act finally underway.

It’s no secret: physicians are reluctant to adopt electronic health records (EHRs) for a host of reasons. But as the financial incentives for EHR adoption begin to take effect – and the threat of financial penalties for not adopting them looms as 2015 approaches – it’s clear that doctors have little choice.

“Certified” is the $44,000 buzzword prefixing electronic health records (EHR) software. To qualify for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clincal Health (HITECH) Act incentive payments, you must use an EHR that is certified by the government. Additionally, you must use a system that offers 100% of the functional and security capabilities required to meet “Meaningful Use” criteria.

The medical software industry is far from supporting the iPad on a meaningful scale. Buyers would think that vendors eager to grow market share would quickly adopt new, flashy technologies, but software vendors are surprisingly slow to react. Electronic health records vendors need to get on board or face the prospect of losing market share to faster-moving competitors.

Electronic health record (EHR) software vendors aren’t churning out profits like you might expect. You’d think that the Federal subsidies for EHR implementation would create a rising tide that lifted all boats in the EHR software industry. In reality, some vendors are about to capsize. Based on data points I’ve observed in the market over the past few months, I think vendors are facing a cash flow crunch.

A critical step in any provider’s electronic health record (EHR) software purchase is the negotiation of the software license agreement (SLA). EHR contracts aren’t too different from other software agreements. You’ll negotiate costs of the user license, discuss service obligations and find a dense “terms and conditions” section. However, you may find provisions unique to health care.