Dear Congressman Black:
As the nation’s healthcare system is undergoing a transformation in an effort to improve quality,
safety, and efficiency of care, the undersigned organizations support the use of electronic health
record (EHR) technology to implement such changes. While the Health Information Technology
for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was created to stimulate the adoption of EHRs
by providing financial incentives to eligible health professionals who demonstrate “meaningful
use,” those incentives require reform in order to ensure EHR adoption by small practices who do
not have and who simply cannot afford health information technology.
A study in the March 2011 edition of Health Affairs estimated that the total first-year costs of
EHR implementation for a five-physician practice to be $233,297, with average per-physician
costs of $46,659 – a large expense for any business to incur. For small practices, the high cost of
EHR adoption is not offset by existing financial incentives. To the contrary practitioners face
uncertainty regarding the value they will receive. This is because the initial financial benefits of
adoption, if they even exist, are difficult to quantify.
…
Read full letter here
