Maryland Signs Law Into Effect for Insurance Companies to Offer Financial Incentives for Electronic Medical Records for Physicians

This is a fair move as they are the ones who presently are benefiting the most with electronic data. The bill leaves it open for a choice of methods to include increased reimbursements or lump-sum payments. The bill also allows for insurers starting next year to reimburse at lower rates for those still using paper.

So bring on the EMR and send the bill to Blue Cross, United HealthCare, Aetna? Do they all pitch in evenly to cover the cost? I would imagine higher reimbursements might be the overall answer as far as administrating as sometimes carrier contract come and go as well as practices change locations, members, patients, and so on. BD

Maryland is poised to jump ahead of the rest of the nation in health information technology on Tuesday when Gov. Martin O'Malley signs a bill intended to coax doctors into using electronic medical records.
The computerized files are seen as the foundation of a national health information network that proponents say will improve care, advance medical knowledge and save the country tens of billions of dollars annually. But with the startup costs to individual doctors in the tens of thousands of dollars, many smaller practices have been slow to move from clipboard to computer screen.

Bill pushes doctors to computerize records -- baltimoresun.com