Idaho hospitals work to computerize medical records

Because of the promise of money, clipboards and medical files will finally join mercury thermometers as a thing of the past for many health care providers.

Beginning this year, hospitals and medical professionals can begin qualifying for Medicaid and Medicare incentives for computerizing patient records.

The incentive payments and associated deadlines for meeting Electronic Health Records requirements were approved last year when Congress and the Obama administration passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.

Hospital associations complained that no facility could meet the requirements, so in July the requirements for the first stage were made easier.

The act provides incentive payments totaling $27 billion over 10 years, or as much as $44,000 through Medicare and $63,750 through Medicaid per clinician.

Hospital payments vary but start at $2 million under both Medicare and Medicaid. If they haven’t started upgrading by 2015, hospitals will receive reduced Medicare reimbursement.

For the Medicaid incentive, hospitals must adopt, implement, upgrade, or demonstrate meaningful use of certified technology in their first year of participation and demonstrate “meaningful use” for up to five years. The last year to enroll to qualify is 2016.

By Laura Lundquist - Times-News writer. Read more