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Is IT ready to pay for itself? (HIMSS meeting)

As information technology becomes a greater force in practices, physicians are wondering if the return on investment outweighs the initial costs and hassles.

By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. March 13, 2006.

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Reports from conferences important to physicians

If you had to shell out $20,000 to $50,000 per physician for start-up costs and endure six months of operational hiccups in hopes of boosting your income 1%, would you buy an electronic medical record?

That's the question most health plans, corporations and others adopting pay-for-performance programs are asking, in hopes of encouraging physicians to use EMRs.

Some pay-for-performance programs directly reward physicians for buying EMRs, while most ask physicians to provide information that's much easier to capture and organize electronically.

At several sessions held during February's Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference & Exhibition, there was widespread recognition among industry professionals that 1% probably isn't enough of a pay-for-performance bonus to convince physicians EMRs can pay for themselves. HIMSS is a Chicago-based industry group that produces the largest health care information technology conference in the country, luring more than 25,000 people and more than 860 health care technology companies touting their products at the San Diego Convention Center.

But while many at HIMSS thought the current incentives probably aren't enough, there was no consensus on what will get physicians to act.

Physicians "need more money because that's the only way they are going to be able to adopt systems and processes that are going to transform the way they can manage care," said Francois de Brantes, program leader for health care initiatives at General Electric Co., a Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate that is a key player in the Bridges to Excellence pay-for-performance program run by a consortium of large corporations.