In a couple of my presentations where I address the return on investment (ROI) and most recently in a December post,I've talked about health information exchange ultimately becoming a cost of doing business. Sooner, rather than later,the application of widespread health information technology will become a cost of being in healthcare industry, just as ATMs and other banking information technologies are a cost of doing business for banks wanting to competitively compete.
Well, this week I saw a new sign supporting that movement may be underway. According to a Modern Healthcare article, terms included in one piece of legislation provide millions of dollars in incentive payments to hospitals that become fully wired facilities. It goes further and also stipulates that providers that choose "not to adopt health IT or do not use it effectively will face payment penalties starting in 2016."
Now, I was just thinking about the requirement to submit all and more data electronically continually, not penalties. Ooohhh! Not that is a motivator! I'm not going to be a big supporter of the fines unless something happens to help address the upfront funding issues that remain (ie most of the current benefits accrue to others, not the provider investing in the technology.)
I like the wake-up call, but lets keep working on this to make it right!
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