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June 16, 2008HHS Secretary Announces 12 Communities Selected to Advance Use of Electronic Health Records in First Ever National Demonstration |
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From HHS News and Events: HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today named 12 communities that will participate in a national Medicare demonstration project that provides incentive payments to physicians for using certified electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality of patient care. "The use of electronic health records, and of health information technology as a whole, has the ability to transform the way health care is delivered in our nation," Secretary Leavitt said. This project is designed to demonstrate these benefits and help increase the use of this technology in practices where adoption has been the slowest -- at the individual physician and small practice level." They demonstrated active collaboration among stakeholders, including physicians and other providers, health plans, employers, government and consumers; existing or planned private sector initiatives related to health information technology and quality reporting; and adequate size to recruit a sufficient number of primary care physician practices. It is my hope that those communities not selected and others that were not yet prepared to apply will continue working together to improve health care -- and consider creating their own incentive-based projects to advance the use of EHRs." In a community where health care providers and payers have already achieved significant coordination in applying for the Medicare demonstration, it may be possible to design independent incentive programs even without Medicare's participation." Over the five-year demonstration project, financial incentives will be provided to as many as 1,200 primary care physician practices in the selected communities that use certified EHRs to improve quality as measured by their performance on specific clinical quality measures.
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