More than half of the nation’s physicians and other health care providers use electronic health records in their practices, new statistics from the Health and Human Services department show.
"We have reached a tipping point in adoption of electronic health records," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. "More than half of eligible professionals and 80% of eligible hospitals have adopted these systems, which are critical to modernizing our health care system."
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More than half of eligible professionals and 80% of eligible hospitals have adopted electronic records systems, said Kathleen Sebelius.
As of the end of April, more than 291,000 physicians and other eligible professionals received incentive payments from the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. This is a significant jump in adoption since the incentives were created under the 2009 Recovery Act. In 2008, only 17% of office-based physicians reported that they had a basic EHR system and 4.4% had a fully functional system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of hospitals using EHRs is also reaching critical mass, according to HHS. More than 3,800 facilities have received incentive payments for their EHR use as of the end of April.
Under the Medicare program, physicians can earn up to $44,000 in bonus payments from the government over 5 years by using electronic systems to meet and report on a set of quality measures. Under Medicaid, the bonus payments add up to $63,750 over 6 years.