2013 was widely known as the year of “the EHR switch” and for the most part, that has turned out to be an accurate statement. However, 2014 is just around the corner, and it will see the implementation of ICD-10 and Meaningful Use Stage 2, two of the biggest changes to take place in the healthcare industry in the last decade or so.
This is primarily why 2014 is being labeled as the make or break year for EHR systems. EHR vendors will have two options: they can either continue to innovate and improve their products to meet industry challenges head on, or, they will find themselves unable to develop and innovate at the same pace as the evolving industry needs and requirements, and will have no choice but to give up and shut down operations.
One product which is keeping up pace with technological challenges is the “All-in-One” Cloud by CureMD.
From a provider’s perspective, providing coordinated care to health populations at the lowest possible costs, will require increased efficiency. However, this can be achieved when an electronic health record system is used, which is not only compliant, but is also capable of meeting future challenges. Reporting of patient data to various regulatory authorities will require physicians to do all they can to improve the quality of the care delivered by comprehensively using the latest technology.
The Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model will also be an important factor in shifting the industry from the current, fee-for-service payment model, to the pay-for-performance one. Instead of linking physician payments to the number of services provided, they will be based on the quality of healthcare delivered through measureable variables provided by the regulatory authorities.
The government is doing all it can to spur the development of digital healthcare environment since 2009, through the HITECH Act. Statistics show that the government has disbursed more than $16.5 billion in subsidies, in order to help physicians, cover the costs of Medicare and Medicaid patients. However, the government plans to reduce the assistance starting in 2015 in order to encourage physicians to switch to digital healthcare records.
Next year will be “a make-or-break year” for electronic health records, says Dr. Farzad Mostashari, who stepped down in October as National Coordinator for Health IT at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “In the past three years, we’ve been busy putting the systems in place,” says Mostashari, now a Brookings Institution visiting fellow. By 2014 these platforms are expected to be able to interoperate, which means “talk to each other and to the patients,” he says.
Interoperability is a concept that hasn’t realized its full potential yet, and physicians, providers, hospital networks, labs, pharmacies, payers and government authorities are just using it partially; Interoperability, undoubtedly is the way forward for the industry and will help shape the future of healthcare. It will unequivocally turbocharge efforts to monitor patient populations, oversee health emergencies, and will be used to make medical discoveries.
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