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With the release of its fiscal 2011 federal budget early this week, the Obama Administration provided a powerful endorsement of information technology as a platform that can improve the quality and lower the cost of American healthcare.
Refusing to be deterred by setbacks in pushing health reform legislation through Congress, the Administration stepped up its support for transforming healthcare with a budget request for $110 million more to strengthen healthcare IT policy, coordination, and research activities.
That's good news for those of us who supported the Administration's successful program to bring our troubled healthcare system into the 21st century, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Signed into law and funded early in 2009, ARRA provides over $30 billion in incentives for the utilization of Electronic Health Records, or between $44,000 to $64,000 per physician. This technology puts the right information in physicians' hands at the right time, enabling them to change healthcare from the inside out. As a result, thousands of new jobs have already been created (hundreds at Allscripts alone) with thousands more to come, and physicians across the country are stepping up to automate their practices and discard their paper charts.
When you combine the new budget request with the ARRA-funded grant and incentives programs designed to assist physicians with adoption and meaningful use of EHRs, I believe these efforts will have a significant impact on the quality of care we receive and lower or at least stabilize the cost of healthcare for all Americans.
In presenting the new budget, the Administration put to rest any fears that funding of the ARRA incentive program is somehow tied to the passage of healthcare reform in Congress. For example, earlier this week, Vivek Kundra, the Federal Chief Information Officer, confirmed in a White House-hosted call I participated in with many industry leaders that the President is committed to the ARRA electronic health record incentives. When asked directly if anything had changed relative to the federal commitment to the ARRA incentives, Kundra stated flatly that there will be no change.
Kundra added that the incentive program not only will continue but will be augmented by the finalization of the 'meaningful use' definition as well as money for regional extension centers to help primary care physicians select and implement an electronic health record. And he pointed to the $286 million in additional funding provided in the new budget for the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to conduct comparative effectiveness research and develop evidence-based treatment guidelines. This research will lead to higher quality, evidence-based medicine, arming physicians and their patients with the best available information to enable them to choose the medical option that's best for them.
Comparative effectiveness research is critical to removing excessive cost in the form of duplicative, unnecessary testing and therapies that provide less than optimal health outcomes. The nation's leading healthcare organizations are already moving in this direction by leveraging the Electronic Health Record. In New York, for example, North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System, the nation's third-largest not-for-profit secular health system, is building a network that will share de-identified outcomes data and enable physicians to access and use real-time evidence-based standards to provide better care for patients, especially those with chronic illnesses that make up the bulk of our healthcare costs today.
That's one reason why North Shore-LIJ Chief Executive Officer Michael Dowling has committed to provide its more than 7,000 affiliated physicians $40,000 of incentives on top of the ARRA incentives towards the implementation of a connected Electronic Health Record. Small wonder the National Quality Forum (NQF) awarded North Shore- LIJ its 2010 NQF National Quality Healthcare Award.
Thanks to leaders like Dowling, and the strong support of the Obama Administration, we are on the road to better health for all Americans. I believe 2010 will be remembered as the “Year of the Electronic Health Record,” as much for the government's stimulus program as for what EHRs can do -- provide our physicians, the best in the world, with the information they need to make better decisions more cost-effectively. Put another way, the Electronic Health Record will change healthcare the way we all want it changed, from the inside out.
Glen Tullman is Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts, the nation's largest publicly traded Electronic Health Record provider and the leader in physician software, information and connectivity solutions.
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Question: If our EHR isn't certified, can we still get incentive funds?
Answer: No. Certification is a qualification for getting ARRA funding, so you must be certified by 2010 in order to collect data and meaningfully use it by 2010. Bonuses under ARRA will be available 2011 on 2010 data. BUT: (caveat) -- under ARRA, HHS must determine a certification body, which they haven't chosen yet. Most experts feel they will choose CCHIT because there is no time to set up another certification body. There also may be other factors involved, such as what certs per year HHS will require under ARRA. Currently, providers are optionally able to update or expand their CCHIT certification each year.
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Comments
Here I am once again with the question you evade, Mr. Glen Tullman. Are dentists to be included in the interoperable health records? It’s a simple, straightforward question for you: Yes or No.
I’m impressed with your political connections, and from your press releases, I see the arrangement with ARRA is paying off nicely for your company. I just want to know if you ever speak to providers. Be a man, Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts (MDRX).
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
CLEARLY MR TULLMAN'S CONCERN IS THE BOTTOM LINE, RATHER THAN THE WELFARE OF THE PATIENT.
MR TULLMAN CLEARLY HAS NO CONCEPT OF THE BENEFITS THAT ACCRUE IN THE WELL-BEING OF THE PATIENT AS A RESULT OF A POSITIVE DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP - AND CLEARLY, IF THERE IS IMPROVEMENT IN THE WELL-BEING OF THE PATIENT, THERE WILL BE A PARALLEL IMPROVEMENT IN THE COST OF MEDICAL CARE-THE BOTTOM LINE. A GOOD DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP IS A ONE-ON-ONE RELATIONSHIP. ITS QUALITY, AND THEREFORE THE EXPECTABLE HEALTH-BENEFITS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY HAZARDED BY THE INTRUSION BETWEEN THE TWO, OF A THIRD PARTY-ESPECIALLY A NON-HUMAN THIRD PARTY!ALREADY I HAVE, AT SECOND-HAND EXPERIENCED SUCH HAZARD. FREQUENTLY MY PATIENTS HAVE FIRST SEEN OTHER SPECIALISTS, AND AS I WORK WITH THE PATIENT, I HEAR TIME AFTER TIME. "YOU ARE THE FIRST DOCTOR WHO LOOKS ME IN THE EYE. YOU ARE THE FIRST DOCTOR WHO HAS ACTUALLY SPOKEN TO ME OR ALL MY OTHER DOCTORS HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT THEIR COMPUTERS, AND PAYING NO ATTENTION TO ME!" APART FROM ISSUES OF SECURITY AND PRIVACY,IT IS MY VIEW THAT WHILE THIS MAY SEEM TO BE AN ADVANCE AND A COST-SAVING VENTURE, EHR'S CAN ONLY DE-PERSONALIZE MEDICINE STILL FURTHER, AND RAISE THE COST OF MEDICAL CARE AS PATIENT LOSE THE ENORMOUS BENEFIT OF A MEANINGFUL PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP.
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