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Feds to doctors: go electronic

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, November 2, 2007

The US is urging healthcare officials to remove paperwork from their practice in exchange for electronic record-keeping, saying it would prevent medical errors and improve patient safety, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The Bush administration targeted 1,200 doctors to go electronic. Going digital would increase Medicare reimbursements to doctors, the administration said. It is also urging insurers to provide similar incentives.

Only about 10 percent of doctors in small practices use electronic records. It can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 to implement a computer system. Some doctors are skeptical of the electronic idea, saying it's too expensive and time-consuming to convert.

"They are saying: 'Look, what's in this for me? My practice is working OK as it is. I need to have some benefit,' Mike Leavitt, Health and Human Services secretary, tells the Associated Press. "And they are right."

Some doctors say having an electronic system works.

Dr. Joseph Heyman of Amesbury, MA, says patients contact him online, and he can access their records there.

"I can go look at her chart, I can refill a prescription. I can give her an appointment, almost anything from any place that I am," Heyman tells the Associated Press.

To read the full story in the Associated Press, click here.

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