Practice Fusion announces state EHR incentive potential

Last week's announcement of final guidelines for medical providers and EHR vendors has officially kicked off the national health IT transition. As part of the 2009 economic stimulus plan (ARRA), billions have been earmarked to incentivize the Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology in the US. Eligible medical providers can each qualify for $44,000+ in stimulus incentives starting in 2011, incentives that will drive health IT adoption and could bring as much as $4 billion to individual states.

Practice Fusion has researched the total EHR incentives at stake in each state based on the number of eligible medical providers.  These totals reflect the incentives that could be paid directly to physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants as a boost to local economies. The fastest growing EHR community in the country, Practice Fusion works daily with medical practices making the switch from paper charts to the company's free, web-based EHR system.  Company experts are available to discuss the relevance of these figures compared to state demographic and health quality data.

State EHR Incentive Potential

1. California, $4.60 billion
2. New York, $3.52 billion
3. Florida, $2.39 billion
4. Texas, $2.37 billion
5. Pennsylvania, $1.84 billion
6. Illinois, $1.52 billion
7. Ohio, $1.44 billion
8. Massachusetts, $1.36 billion
9. New Jersey, $1.27 billion
10. Michigan, $1.25 billion
11. Virginia, $1.05 billion
12. North Carolina, $1.03 billion
13. Georgia, $1.01 billion
14. Maryland, $1.00 billion
15. Washington, $871 million
16. Tennessee, $804 million
17. Missouri, $755 million
18. Arizona, $718 million
19. Wisconsin, $713 million
20. Indiana, $686 million
21. Minnesota, $683 million
22. Connecticut, $618 million
23. Colorado, $617 million
24. South Carolina, $567 million
25. Oregon, $523 million
26. Louisiana, $506 million
27. Kentucky, $483 million
28. Alabama, $475 million
29. Oklahoma, $334 million
30. Kansas, $322 million
31. Mississippi, $316 million
32. Iowa, $313 million
33. Arkansas, $306 million
34. Utah, $290 million
35. District of Columbia, $266 million
36. Nevada, $235 million
37. New Mexico, $227 million
38. West Virginia, $215 million
39. Maine, $209 million
40. Nebraska, $198 million
41. Hawaii, $192 million
42. Rhode Island, $180 million
43. Idaho, $140 million
44. Delaware, $124 million
45. Montana, $115 million
46. Vermont, $108 million
47. Alaska, $100 million
48. South Dakota, $89 million
49. North Dakota, $78 million
50. New Hampshire, $77 million
51. Wyoming, $62 million

"The EHR incentive plan was created, not to just dramatically improve the safety and quality of healthcare, but also to provide an economic stimulus to the country," said Practice Fusion CEO, Ryan Howard. "By providing incentives to physicians, ARRA has already created a booming health IT sector with opportunities for health IT professionals, hardware manufacturers, technology companies, medical providers and local healthcare organizations. As the EHR transition timeline approaches and incentives begin to be paid in 2011, we will see the real impact of Washington's EHR campaign at the local level."

The new EHR stimulus criteria include 15 mandatory tasks and 10 "a la carte" menu items, from which the provider needs to accomplish five.   Broadly, medical providers will need to begin electronically recording patient health data, providing patients with access to their health information, e-prescribing, using interaction warning and clinical decision support tools, linking together different parts of the healthcare systems and reporting quality measures for public health monitoring using a certified EHR system.

Practice Fusion can connect reporters to local medical professionals who have completed or are in the process of making the EHR transition. Medical providers are available to share response to the new criteria, thoughts about stimulus incentives and plans for using the $44,000 bonus.