Maryland doctors got the first crack at a federal pilot program that reimburses physicians for ditching paper for electronic medical records.
“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. They were reluctant to take on the cost,” Mike Leavitt, U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, told a group of physicians Tuesday at Anne Arundel Medical Center.
Up to 100 practices will be eligible for as much as $58,000 per physician or $290,000 for a practice to cover the costs of buying, implementing, training and lost time in the transition to a new record-keeping system.
HHS officials said they hope that by increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to these physicians, they will encourage private insurers to follow suit and get more practices to make the jump.
