Many medical practices are converting to electronic health records. And with the grants offered in the stimulus bill the number is only going to increase. One factor many practices fail to take into account is the security of the documents during the conversion process.

Ed Goodman, of Identity Theft 911, is predicting “There will be lots of lower-paid individuals and there are not always background checks being done. It’s pretty easy to abscond with Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or other identifiers.” He suggest making sure you are dealing with a reputable scanning service when you convert your medical records.

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.

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.