Maryland doctors who swap paper for electronic medical records will be the first in the nation to be reimbursed under a federal pilot program.
“While the number of electronic health records around the country has proliferated, there?s been a reluctance among small- to medium-sized practices to embrace them,” Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told a group of physicians Tuesday at Anne Arundel Medical Center.
“They were reluctant to take on the cost.”
Up to 100 practices in Maryland and the District of Columbia will be eligible for up to $58,000 per physician or $290,000 for a practice to cover the costs of buying, implementing, training and losing time in the transition to a new record-keeping system.
Doctors will get an initial reimbursement for adopting the systems, then annual incentives for reporting statistical data to HHS and improving certain indicators, like reducing unnecessary procedures and tests.
The initiative has been received with some skepticism, both because of the costs and the as-yet unanswered questions about privacy.
Doctors see the logic of reducing medical errors and redundant tests, said Dr. Ron Sroka, president-elect of the Maryland State Medical Society ? MedChi ? and a private physician working with Anne Arundel Medical Center.
“We also fear some of the unintended consequences, especially when it comes to patient confidentiality and rights,” he said.
Leavitt acknowledged that security is the “first principle” in establishing the credibility of electronic records, but offered no regulatory solutions.
“It?s up to each patient to ensure they know where their data is and what?s being done with that data,” he said.
Current patient privacy law is not equipped to handle the challenge, said Dr. Bruce Smoller, past president of MedChi.
“I write reports that contain very sensitive information,” he said.
“I think there?s going to have to be new legislation to make sure they?re adequately protected.”
In addition to the five-year, $150,000 pilot, HHS officials said they hoped increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to these physicians would encourage private insurers to follow suit and ease the burden on physicians? offices.
Recruiting practices begin this fall.
“If two or three private insurers in the area do the same thing, the cost of adoption will be covered,” Leavitt said.
Physician reimbursement is a major problem in Maryland, and the federal pilot only offers partial relief, Sroka said.
