House GOP Urges Halt To EHR Bonuses

The mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by pofiting in small things than bystanding at a stary in great.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Of Empire

One man's bonus is another man's bribe.

Anonymous

October 14, 2012 -  This is from the October 12 Kaiser Health News.  CMS has pushed one time incentives of $43,500 to encourage doctors to adopt EHRs if they comply with “meaningful use” rules. It is a strategy that is working.  The GOP objects because of the expense and the fact that most EHRs do not “talk with one another.

Federal bonuses for "meaningful use" of electronic health records (EHRs) have become a political football, with House Republicans calling for their immediate suspension and health care groups rising to their defense. Last week, four powerful House Republicans told US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a letter that "insufficient standards" for EHR meaningful use have left physicians and other providers with systems that cannot "talk with one another." They urged Sebelius to suspend incentive payments until HHS issues "universal interoperable standards." ... The letter from the GOP congressmen provoked a rebuttal the next day from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a large trade organization for professionals and vendors in that field.

Tweet:  GP objects as billions of federal $s are spent for physician incentives to adopt EHRs that don't talk to one another.