Opinion: Small Practices Facing Large Barriers to Adoption of Health IT

In an opinion piece for The Hill’s “Congress Blog,” Rep. Renee Elmers (R-N.C.) — chair of the House Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology — writes that small medical practices face “ineffective and inefficient government burdens” in implementing health IT systems.

In a subcommittee hearing last week, Elmers heard testimony on the barriers that small medical practices encounter in adopting health IT. She writes that such obstacles include:

• Financial barriers, such as the “cost of system, maintenance, updates and training”;
• Legal barriers, including “privacy, security and liability” issues; and
• Technology challenges, such as the “limits of broadband.”

Elmers also discusses the challenges that small medical practices face in meeting federal mandates for electronic prescribing.

Elmers notes that she has introduced a bill (HR 2128) that aims to put “decision-making power back in the hands of doctors and patients.” The bill would cancel planned penalties for hospitals and physicians that “cannot yet e-prescribe” and remove e-prescribing from the requirements for demonstrating meaningful use of electronic health records, according to Elmers. Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.

Elmers writes that the bill would prevent physicians and hospitals from facing “further payment reductions due to the cumbersome regulations” in the e-prescribing and meaningful use programs.

She concludes, “Small medical practices should not be left in the dark on transitioning to more modern record-keeping practices. We must help to remove the barriers facing small practices so they too are able to offer the latest in health IT for their patients — while ensuring the information is secure and privacy is protected” (Elmers, “Congress Blog,” The Hill, 6/9). 

Source: iHealthBeat