Health IT Experts Say Incentives May Be Needed To Encourage Physicians To Adopt Electronic Systems

Nothing new here...we all know they need some type of incentive to buy in...new tax breaks are a smart start....but it goes way beyond this point for most...BD

Health care information technology experts on Tuesday said that implementation of electronic health records and electronic prescribing will reduce costs by billions of dollars and save lives but added that health care providers might require financial incentives to adopt the technologies, CongressDaily reports.
At a conference sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Chamber Foundation, experts said that although larger physician groups and many pharmacies have begun to adopt such technologies, many smaller physician groups and pharmacies in rural areas have not, in large part because of cost issues. Privacy issues also have delayed the adoption of such technologies, experts said (Posner/Johnson, CongressDaily, 3/11).