May 3, 2009
Delays in EHR Stimulus Time Frame
Written by: John
About a month ago I read an interesting post by Will Weider, CIO of Ministry Health Care and Affinity Health System, where Will is the first to announce delays in the HITECH Act (ARRA) EHR stimulus money. To make his case he gives two reasons for his belief:
- In my experience, government mandates delays are the rule
- This EHR deadlines are completely unreasonable
HHS finally has Kathleen Sebelius in as secretary and so that should help move things along. However, I have to agree with Will that the EHR stimulus money will be delayed.
I’m not really blaming HHS or ONC or any other government organization for this. The HITECH Act (ARRA) guidelines are so vague that they should take their time and make sure the $18 billion is spent wisely. Luckily, I feel like David Blumenthal seems to understand the importance of the decisions they make as far as what’s defined as a “certified EHR” and meaningful use. That’s a good thing and it’s better to do things slowly than to do things poorly.
This will be bad news for all those EHR vendors who aren’t selling products. More delays on the definitions of these two things could put a number of EHR vendors in trouble (as I’ve spoken about a few times before).
I think we’re in for a really interesting year for those interested in selecting an EHR and the EHR space. I wonder if the first person to get a stimulus check from the government will take a picture and post it on Twitter or some blog. That will be a momentous occasion indeed.
Related ArticlesLook for similar articles under these categories:
4 responses to "Delays in EHR Stimulus Time Frame"
Leave a Reply
- » Recent articles
- The Financial Implications of Skipping Years and Switching Incentive Programs – Meaningful Use Monday
- eCollaboration at HIMSS12, MU Stage 2, Healthcare Social Media, Tablets and Accessible Patient Data
- More Meaningful Use Stage 1 Numbers from 2011
- HIMSS 12 New Media Meetup – Sponsored by simplifyMD
- Large EHR Vendor Recommendation
- Interoperability versus Usability in Best of Breed or All-in-One HIS Systems
- Meaningful Use Appeals Process – Meaningful Use Monday
- Kaiser’s Mobile App, EHR Anxiety Coding, EHR Accessibility Challenge and EHR Design
- Social Media ROI for Doctors
- GE Centricity Advance Ceasing Operations
- Health Care Administration - MHA Programs
- » Archive Calendar
-
Jobs by SimplyHired
The deadlines are unreasonable only if your idea of reason is efforting a shift in the center of gravity of opinion a few impressions one way or the other. There is very little to be learned in this way about what players think can win against competition when that competition is limited to marketing. Once players make a break for the finish, we will see what instincts for winning are telling each player. Some of those instincts will be grounded in the experience of market power and some on delivering a killer app. The closer the deadline, the sooner they will break for it.
The deadlines are very unreasonable, especially given the lack of overall clarity. The entire process needs to be fixed. Here are a few proposed ways to fix it:
http://businessisart.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/fixcchit/
Nice suggestions. Some of which we covered here and some which we haven’t. The main point though is that some real work needs to be done to make certification and meaningful use work.
[...] of your EHR software. Certainly this is not beyond the realm of possibilities even if I think there will be a delay in EHR stimulus money. I also wouldn’t encourage people to stop even looking at EMR companies. Instead, I would [...]