Study: EHRs Increase Reimbursement

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

A study from Drexel University has discovered that, over time, providers who implement EHRs see greater reimbursement.

A study by Drexel University College of Medicine, recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, has found EHR implementation results in greater reimbursement.

Over two years, researchers monitored the practice productivity of 30 ambulatory practices after EHR implementation. They made notes of reimbursements as well as the number of patient visits and other information. Then, they compared that data to the data collected before implementation.

Based on the results of the study, researchers concluded reimbursements significantly increased for those providers that had implemented an EHR system in the two-year observation period.  It’s important to note that these increases were not the result of upcoding or increased rates. Researchers write, “We saw no evidence of upcoding or increased reimbursement rates to explain the increased revenues. Instead, they were associated with an increase in ancillary office procedures (e.g., drawing blood, immunizations, wound care, ultrasounds).”

According to Fierce EMR, the study found that while EHRs increased reimbursement, they actually cut down on the number of patients seen by each practice. “For the practices still seeing fewer patients after two years, the solution likely involves advancing their EHR functionality to include analytics. Although they may still see fewer patients, with EHR analytics, they can focus on seeing the right patients,” said authors.

“The bottom line result - that EHR implementation is associated with increased revenues - is reassuring and offers a basis for further EHR investment. While the productivity losses are consistent with field reports, they also reflect a type of efficiency - the practices are receiving more reimbursement for fewer seeing patients.”