“Meaningful Use” Definition Means Billions for Electronic Health Records

August 31, 2010

For centuries, philosophers around the world have searched for ever-elusive explanations of “meaning.”

For the past year, the Federal Government has had its own quest in the realm of Health Information Technology: When it comes to an Electronic Health Record (EHR) or Electronic Medical Record (EMR), what does “meaningful use” mean for medical practices across the United States?

Why is this definition so important? In an excellent recent piece published in the Orlando Business Journal, writer Melanie Stawicki Azam explains that these “meaningful use” rules from the Federal Government outline how physicians’ offices can qualify for a share of $27 billion in stimulus funding to help them implement an EHR in their practices.

Azam explains that practices “didn’t want to buy an expensive system until the federal government released its much-awaited ‘meaningful use’ rules, which outline how to quality for the incentives.”

For EHRs to quality under the “meaningful use” rules, it is not enough that their systems create an electronic filing system. They also have to demonstrate significant improvement in patient care.

Some interesting numbers from Azam’s article:

  • $44,000-$63,750: The amount of money a provider can get in stimulus funding if he or she meets the “meaningful use” rule.
  • $173,750 to $296,000: What it costs for a 3-physician practice to implement and run an EHR for two years according to a 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis.
  • 2015: The cutoff year when providers who are not “meaningful users” of an Electronic Health Record system will get paid less by Medicare and Medicaid.
  • $7.6 million: The amount of federal stimulus funds recently received by Orlando’s University of Central Florida to help local providers choose and implement EHR systems.



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