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12 responses to "Q&A: ARRA EMR Stimulus Money for Non Medicare Providers"

1. # Steve Martin commented on January 29th, 2010:

   Don’t forget about Section 179 accellerated depreciation write-offs for capital equipment investment. This program officially ended in 2009, but the government has the ability to extend this program so that physicians that don’t meet the minimum Medicare or Medicaid requirements can still qualify for this tax deduction. This would go a long way to getting everyone on the EMR bandwagon!

2. # John commented on January 30th, 2010:

   Hi Steve,
   Do we have any word on whether this program will be extended or not?

3. # DBerry commented on January 31st, 2010:

   Don’t think the program can be reinstituted without new legislation.

   In any case the program can’t be so restrictive as to apply to HEIT investments… let alone to apply to only those who “don’t meet the minimum Medicare or Medicaid requirements”.

   What about those practices which do not have either Medicare or Medicaid patients? Shouldn’t those practitioners benefit from implementing an EHR?

   In my opinion few group practices will meet meaningful use criteria and when they finally do all the money will have been paid out to hospitals… so if you are implementing an EHR you best do it for reasons other than maybe getting a stimulus check.

   Instead of worrying about ‘stimulus’ checks (which only stimulate the EHR/EMR vendors) … more should be spent as it is here in the EMR and HIPPA Blog focusing on how to choose, how to implement, and how to employ an EMR/EHR for the betterment of a practice and its patients.

   (Any entity that starts off a list of EHR/EMR benefits with “financial” has the wrong priority as its principle outcome.)

4. # John commented on January 31st, 2010:

   “more should be spent as it is here in the EMR and HIPPA Blog focusing on how to choose, how to implement, and how to employ an EMR/EHR for the betterment of a practice and its patients.”

   I like this idea. I guess I should finish up my e-Books so that people have a place to spend that money…lol

5. # Maria commented on February 1st, 2010:

   @ DBerry -I have been thinking about this alot latley. There is so much talk about “stimulus”. But what about the providers that won’t qualify at all? I don’t think they are going to be eager to spend the money. What will need to be done to cater to that group…..

6. # DBerry commented on February 1st, 2010:

   If everyone isn’t selling a EHR package that makes value sense to every practice regardless of whether it’s discounted by the government or not… then what does it say about the value of the package to begin with?

   What we have right now is everyone trying to figure out if they qualify for the discount through some hyperbolic, academic perspective of what constitutes “meaningful use” when the governement has no way to “meaningfully use” the output results itself.

   To Maria’s comment: “I don’t think they are going to be eager to spend the money. What will need to be done to cater to that group…”.

   If those that aren’t eligible aren’t going to spend the money… (which is a good bet unless they see the value of an EHR without the incentive)… then the EHR/EMR industry has a whole market segment that they need to figure out how to penetrate.

   Again as I said at the top of this post. What does it say about the value of the box to the client if the only way he’ll buy it is if the government gives him a rebate?

7. # John commented on February 1st, 2010:

   Maria,
   I think the best thing for those people that don’t qualify is that they should then focus on the EMR benefits: http://www.emrandhipaa.com/benefits-of-emr-or-ehr-over-paper-charts/ They may find out that by focusing on the EMR benefits that are intrinsic with an EMR, they’ll do a much better job implementing an EMR than if they would have focused on the EMR stimulus money.

8. # DBerry commented on February 1st, 2010:

   @John… I know we will beat this point dead over the coming months/years of HEIT implementation but it is absolutely essential for health care organizations to make EMR/EHR decisions based on and measured against expected benefits without consideration of whether they will receive a meaningful use incentive rebate.

   Thanks to Maria for teeing it up for us.

9. # Maria commented on February 2nd, 2010:

   @ John Thanks. That list is very useful. And I look forward to your e-books
   @DBerry No Prob. Thanks for the input.

10. # Jo-Anne Sietz commented on March 23rd, 2010:

    Hello does anyone know if Medicare Advantage programs or Medicare secondary qualify for the stimulus money? I suspect not, I can’t find documentation stating they do.

    Jo-Anne

11. # John commented on March 23rd, 2010:

    Jo-Anne,
    I’ve seen that question a few places and haven’t seen a real hard answer either. However, like you, I suspect that it’s not.

12. # Jamie commented on March 25th, 2010:

    Does anyone know whether or not the government is implementing some kind of incentive benefit for non-Medicare/Medicaid users?

    Or are these practices totally out of luck?