According to the article, the “ARRA does not begin offering incentives to doctors and hospitals to implement electronic medical records until 2011, and providers are waiting for guidance on so-called “meaningful use” rules, which are expected to be finalized next month.”

In the article, Arthur Young, president of Interbit Data, says:

“To some extent the stimulus is having the opposite effect. Customers are holding back from buying products while they wait to hear the final guidelines.”

Young goes on to state that Interbit Data has done some new targeted marketing of its products, to help reassure providers that the applications will conform to the “meaningful use” rules.

Is your hospital waiting to purchase IT solutions to support the “meaningful use” rules or have you already started investing? Let us know.

It was pointed out that more than 80% of all healthcare dollars are controlled by the physicians. There are some incentives toward EMR adoption and use, but it may not be enough, and there is really no fundamental change to the way the physicians practice, which would lead to helping to control costs.

One of the first speakers at the event was Dr. Alan Sager, a professor of Public Policy at BU, who outlined a most interesting plan to focus on increasing the number of general practitioners and giving them some sort of capitated dollars for care of their patients. Unlike other systems, the physician would be salaried so as to not profit from withholding care, but simply responsible for managing cost-effective care.  An interesting idea. Unfortunately, science fiction. Maybe I need to move to Canada.