Study: Hospitals still cautious about EMR incentives

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite regulatory changes allowing hospitals to help doctors buy electronic medical record (EMR) systems, institutions have been slow to offer EMR incentives, according to a new study by the Center for Studying Health System Change.
Federal physician self-referral and anti-kickback laws normally bar hospitals from offering financial incentives to doctors in return for patient referrals. But since August 2006, special exceptions have been allowed for EMR incentives.
Hospitals can subsidize up to 85 percent of the upfront and ongoing costs of EMR software and related information technology support services for physicians, and the doctors must pay the full cost of any hardware. The exceptions are scheduled to sunset on Dec. 31, 2013.
The study found that some hospitals are offering direct financial subsidies, extending the hospital’s ambulatory EMR vendor discounts and providing technical support – most commonly with the goals of improving the quality and efficiency of care and aligning physicians more closely with the hospital.
However, while a few hospitals in the study had begun small-scale, phased rollouts of subsidized EMRs, the burden of ongoing technology projects, budget limitations and lack of physician interest kept other hospitals from taking action, the study found.
“While hospitals have strategic incentives to provide support, particularly to tie referring physicians to their institution, the effects of the regulatory changes on physician EMR adoption will ultimately depend both on hospitals’ willingness to provide support and physicians’ acceptance of hospital assistance,” said Joy M. Grossman, HSC senior researcher and co-author of the study with Genna Cohen, an HSC research assistant.
The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is available at www.hschange.org/CONTENT/1015. It is based on HSC’s 2007 site visits to 12 nationally representative metropolitan communities: Boston; Cleveland; Greenville, S.C.; Indianapolis; Lansing, Mich.; Little Rock, Ark.; Miami; northern New Jersey; Orange County, Calif.; Phoenix; Seattle; and Syracuse, N.Y.