• Home
  • Practice Focus
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
    • How I Do It
    • TRIO Best Practices
  • Business of Medicine
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Practice Management
    • Tech Talk
    • AI
  • Literature Reviews
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Career
    • Medical Education
    • Professional Development
    • Resident Focus
  • ENT Perspectives
    • ENT Expressions
    • Everyday Ethics
    • From TRIO
    • The Great Debate
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Rx: Wellness
    • The Voice
    • Viewpoint
  • TRIO Resources
    • Triological Society
    • The Laryngoscope
    • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
    • TRIO Combined Sections Meetings
    • COSM
    • Related Otolaryngology Events
  • Search

Digital Dilemma: Physicians oppose EHR requirements

by Geri Aston • May 2, 2010

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

The federal government’s proposed rule establishing incentive payments for physicians who “meaningfully use” electronic health records (EHRs) is too onerous and would discourage physicians from participating, some otolaryngologists say.

You Might Also Like

  • Experts Push EHR Adoption: Expect to commit your time and finances, panelists say
  • EHR Contracts Done Right: Get the most out of the government’s new adoption incentives
  • Digital Efficiency: Panel discusses the inevitability of EMRs
  • Time to Comply with Physician Quality Reporting System Is Now
Explore This Issue
May 2010

“The idea of having physician’s offices and medicine brought into the electronic age is very noble and worthy,” said Howard Kotler, MD, clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He added, however, that the proposed rule would “make it impossible to get the payments. It will further alienate physicians from the government and vice versa. And it will do nothing to improve quality of care, and that’s the key thing.”

“Meaningful Use” Defined

The rule includes 25 meaningful use criteria for physicians to report in order to qualify for incentive payments, which are available starting in 2011. Beginning in 2015, physicians who do not meet the meaningful use criteria will not receive full payment for their Medicare professional services.

The number of criteria is too high, the thresholds established to meet them are often too tough and the timeframe to get payment in the first year is too short, otolaryngologists interviewed by ENT Today said. The American Medical Association (AMA) agreed with this assessment in its March 15 letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The proposed meaningful use criteria are “too aggressive” and, if adopted, would deter many physicians from participating in the incentive program, the letter states.

The proposed regulation, which would implement part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, would require physicians to provide patients with clinical summaries of their office visits. To meet the measure, doctors would have to provide these summaries for at least 80 percent of all office visits.

“That sounds fantastic, but how about operationalizing it?” said Rahul Shah, MD, FACS, FAAP, assistant professor of otolaryngology and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and attending physician in the department of otolaryngology at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The 80 percent threshold and other targets seem pulled out of thin air, he said: “It feels like we’re being set up to fail on something that sounds attractive to the average consumer.”

The AMA letter notes that it might not be practical or necessary for physicians to give every patient a summary at the end of each visit. According to the association, doctors and patients are in the best position to decide what records are needed and when.

How Much Will You Get?

The size of your incentive payment will vary depending on whether you participate in the Medicare or Medicaid arm of the program, whether you are in a health professional shortage area (HPSA) and what year you begin participation. Here is the maximum possible amount over the entire course of the incentive program, listed by the first year of incentive payment.

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Filed Under: Departments, Health Policy, Practice Management, Tech Talk Tagged With: billing and coding, EHR, electronic health records, healthcare reform, Medicare, policy, practice managementIssue: May 2010

You Might Also Like:

  • Experts Push EHR Adoption: Expect to commit your time and finances, panelists say
  • EHR Contracts Done Right: Get the most out of the government’s new adoption incentives
  • Digital Efficiency: Panel discusses the inevitability of EMRs
  • Time to Comply with Physician Quality Reporting System Is Now

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

Polls

Have you invented or patented something that betters the field of otolaryngology?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Top Articles for Residents

  • Applications Open for Resident Members of ENTtoday Edit Board
  • How To Provide Helpful Feedback To Residents
  • Call for Resident Bowl Questions
  • New Standardized Otolaryngology Curriculum Launching July 1 Should Be Valuable Resource For Physicians Around The World
  • Do Training Programs Give Otolaryngology Residents the Necessary Tools to Do Productive Research?
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • Otolaryngologists as Entrepreneurs: Transforming Patient Care And Practice

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Physician Handwriting: A Potentially Powerful Healing Tool

    • Continued Discussion And Engagement Are Essential To How Otolaryngologists Are Championing DEI Initiatives In Medicine

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Is Middle Ear Pressure Affected by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Use?

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • Complications for When Physicians Change a Maiden Name

    • Physician Handwriting: A Potentially Powerful Healing Tool
    • Leaky Pipes—Time to Focus on Our Foundations
    • You Are Among Friends: The Value Of Being In A Group
    • How To: Full Endoscopic Procedures of Total Parotidectomy
    • How To: Does Intralesional Steroid Injection Effectively Mitigate Vocal Fold Scarring in a Rabbit Model?

Follow Us

  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • The Triological Society
  • The Laryngoscope
  • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies

Wiley

Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1559-4939