Revving the IT train

Efforts to create a physicians "buyer's guide" for electronic medical records, and loosening of Stark rules so others can pay for doctors' systems, are encouraging. But it's not yet enough to get physicians to embrace completely the idea of going electronic.

Editorial. Sept. 4, 2006.

For years, the AMA and others in medicine have asked for help in getting doctors aboard the information technology train that shows so much promise to raise the overall quality and safety of health care. It's a train having trouble getting on track, in part because physicians are given little incentive, compared with others in the health care system, to hop aboard.

Fortunately, this summer physicians got some assistance -- namely, a buyers' guide of sorts and a loosening of Stark self-referral and anti-kickback rules -- that could help more of them jump on the infotech train. But it's only a start. More needs to be done to ensure that all physicians have the assurance they need to move forward.

The AMA shares "the widespread optimism over the promise that [health information technology] holds for transforming care." The Association stated so in a July 19 letter to Rep. John Boehner (R, Ohio), the House Majority Leader. But that optimism holds only if such technology is "properly developed and carefully integrated into the health care delivery system," wrote AMA Executive Vice President and CEO Michael D. Maves, MD, MBA.

The systems being developed are pricey and come with no guarantees that they are interoperable with other systems, or that they satisfy doctors' needs for privacy and security. Getting the wrong system is an expensive mistake. According to the journal Health Affairs, systems run $44,000 per full-time equivalent physician or other health care professional for initial costs, and $8,500 per FTE for ongoing costs.