How Much Will IO Cost You? A Letter from our CEO

Dear Friends of IO Practiceware:

In this otherwise challenging economic time, one bright spot for physicians is the new economic stimulus bill. The bill instructs Medicare to pay physicians who use electronic medical records (EMR) a total of $47,000 each (over a five year period). This means that your purchase of our software is now nearly or completely free. The cost of an outright purchase will be returned to you over five years. If you lease the software, you'll have no out of pocket expense at all.

To receive an estimate tailored to your practice, please email us with the following information:

• Approximate number of patient encounters each month
• Number of offices with significant patient volume
• Do you dispense glasses? if so, at how many locations?
• Which diagnostic test equipment do you use (imaging, lensometers, OCTs, etc.)

The bottom line is: IO's software increases your revenues 2-5% and lowers your costs 5-20% -- even without additional incentives. With the new incentive, it's pretty much an economic no brainer.

Our implementation calendar is filling up, but we can always make room for your practice.

If you'd like to start working with us to improve your bottom line, give us a call or send us an email.

Regards,

Gregory

Health Care IT: The Latest from the Obama Team

By now you've probably caught wind of Obama's advocacy of health care IT -- exciting news for doctors and EMR vendors alike. According to President Obama, our shared goal of improved efficiency, connectivity, and cost-effectiveness is achievable through widespread EMR adoption.

Most recently, Congress has approved of allocating $19 billion toward health care IT -- specifically, transforming paper charts into their electronic form -- as part of a greater $100 billion push for better, more widespread health care coverage. (Read more...)

Moreover, Congress has declared that physicians who use electronic medical records are eligible for up to $44,000 in incentive payments, which will be delivered over a four or five-year period as of 2011. Early birds who begin using EMR by December 31, 2010 or 2011 are eligible for an $18,000 first-year payment, followed by $12,000, $8,000, $4,000 and $2,000 in subsequent years. If practices begin use by December 31, 2012, payments in years 2-5 are the same, but their first-year payment is reduced to $15,000. The reception of this EMR incentive, however, will preclude physicians from collecting additional money for e-prescribing. As for penalties, those who do not adopt HIT incur a 1 percent penalty in their Medicare fee schedule payments in 2015, 2 percent in 2016, 3 percent in 2017, and 3 percent every year beyond that.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, we continue to speculate on how exactly, in practical terms, the Obama team will aid in the implementation of this plan for digitized health records. Indeed, IO Practiceware believes in the value of some form of standardization for EMRs -- to enable and promote practice interconnectivity -- but is wary of the roadblocks posed by CCHIT's limited definition of a "certified" EMR system.

In the meantime, we applaude the Obama administration for encouraging EMR adoption through monetary incentive, enabling the emergence and implementation of specialty-specific EMRs like IO Practiceware.

What do you think? Contact Obama's team or write to your state's senator.

In the meantime, you can check out some related articles: Obama's Big Idea: Digital Health Records, from CNN.com or our previous Blog post on Obama.

Yes We Can: Under Obama, Bright Future for Health Care, EMR

We all knew President-Elect Barack Obama looked great in his skivvies, but some were skeptical about his proposed health care plan. To what extent, we still wonder, will Obama advocate for better health technology? How much money will he allocate toward facilitating widespread adoption of EMR systems?

On Thursday afternoon the Harbinger of Hope proposed a preliminary outline for a $100 billion package for healthcare, and at the top of this agenda is a plan to bestow new incentives onto practices that use electronic medical records. It seems he has great faith in the future success, and necessity, of EMR.  Says Obama:

To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that, within five years, all of America's medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests.

Read more...