If you are still thinking about your strategy for Meaningful Use, I want you to stop right now and write me a check for $5,000 for every physician in your practice. I promise I’ll put the money to good use.
This is conceptually what happens if you don’t act immediately. You have just given away 5 grand per physician that you will never get back. In order to take advantage of ALL the meaningful use incentives have to offer your practice must register, adopt and EMR system, and submit 90 days of data by 01 January 2013. This means all your systems must be fully online and approved by ONC no later than 03 October 2012. You don’t have much time left.
If you wait until next year, you will only be eligible for four years of payments up to $39,000. You forfeit the $5,000 payment in year one. If you wait until 2014, you give away another $15,000 per physician and can only collect up to $24,000 in payments.
There is no denying, this is a lot of hassle. Yet, it is much more costly to ignore. The Federal Government is offering incentives for technology adoption to report meaningful use. Once these incentives go away, the Feds are levying penalties. You will eventually comply or it will cost you a lot of cash. So ask yourself, what am I waiting for? Over time, you must have an EMR and the ability to report meaningful use in order to practice medicine in the US. The only way you can avoid this is to move to a concierge, all-cash model. It would be more cost effective to adopt EMR technologies than to rebuild your patient base with those willing and able to pay cash.
There is a plethora of EMR vendors who offer systems for all price ranges. The cost for these systems is dropping and the evidence for their adoption is growing. The time has never been better to go paperless. Many of these EMR systems offer meaningful use reporting. Other systems, such as Health BI, offer more comprehensive, enterprise-wide reports that include the ability to attest for meaningful use. These systems are relatively easy to install and easier to use.
Feel free to express your disagreement with me by sending your check directly to me at home.
