If you have been reading this blog you are aware of the $19 Billion the government is spending on electronic medical records as part of the stimulus package. The question is now being asked if the technology is ready for the job. Fred Schutte has an article looking at some of the struggles at hospitals who have converted.

In the long term, electronic health records (EHRs) are the right answer. The question is about the short term. What we really need is a national standard for EHRs. Until systems seamlessly integrate we will see many of these issues. I hope the department of Health and Human Services tackles the problem before the cost of fixing it is greater than the cost of implementation.

The White House has announced two grant programs for HITECH grants. These grant programs are attempting to bring about universal electronic health care records.

The first grant program is called the Health Information Technology Extension Program. It will fund dozens of Regional Extension Centers across the country for Health Information Technology. They will offer hospitals and doctors technical assistance for EHR systems.

The second grant program will help States to develop policies and procedures to help with the information transfer within and across states. [full story]

President Obama has given doctors a $19 billion incentive to convert their paper records to digital files. Medical record scanning was marked as a high priority initiative in the $800 billion stimulus package that passed last month.

The president is clearly sending a message to medical practices and hospitals that it is time to convert their paper files to Electronic Medical Records (EMR). It is a priority for President Obama because it will help healthcare providers and insurance companies easily share information about patients.

The government will be providing grants to individual practices to help offset the cost. As news of these grants spreads, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the requests for scanning service.

Over the next few years you are going to see more and more doctors typing on the computer instead of writing on a chart.

"The president is clearly sending a message to medical practices and hospitals that it is time to convert their paper files to Electronic Medical Records (EMR)," says Steve Hastert, president of Record Nations. Record Nations helps medical offices scan their records. "It is a priority for President Obama because it will help healthcare providers and insurance companies easily share information about patients."

The benefit of EMRs is reduced overhead in the healthcare system and a reduction in misdiagnoses. With $600 billion in medical spending the federal government would be the biggest beneficiary of increased efficiencies.

While many leading hospitals have already scanned documents into a digital format, thousands of smaller doctors' offices have not made the switch. Most cite the fact that scanning medical files is a significant expense and the cost is difficult to pass on to patients.

"The government will be providing grants to individual practices to help offset the cost," says Hastert. "As news of these grants spreads, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the requests for scanning service."

The incentives in the plan include $2 billion in grants to individual physicians in the amount of $44,000 to $64,000. This can be used for document scanning and electronic document management systems. Hospitals can qualify for up to $11 million in incentives. The remaining $17 billion is for Medicaid and Medicare payment increases to offices using the system.

The law also establishes penalties for practices that choose not to employ e-health records. In 2014 there will be decreased Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements for practices that have not implemented EMRs.

"Over the next few years you are going to see more and more doctors typing on the computer instead of writing on a chart," predicted Hastert.

For many doctors the biggest barrier to electronic health records (EHR) is the cost of the software and hardware. The New England Journal of Medicine estimated the cost at $36,000 per physician. Even with the $19 billion in grants from the stimulus package this is hefty chunk of change.

To offer a low cost solution, Wal-Mart has partnered with Dell and eClinicalWorks. The new system priced at $25,000 for the first physician in a practice and $10,000 for each additional doctor. Continuing annual cost is expected to be $4,000 to $6,500 per year for maintenance and support.

If this system gets traction it might have the power to become the standard in an industry looking for a market leader.