The HITECH Act And Your Practice: 8 Tips For Successful EHR Adoption

In this white paper, athenahealth covers the current movement towards electronic health records (EHRs), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, and 8 tips for successful EHR adoption. Many physician practices are uneasy about switching to EHRs, troubled by high upfront costs such as hardware, software, interfaces, and IT support, and no clear return on investment (ROI).

The HITECH act is set up to encourage EHR adoption, providing $44,000 in reimbursements from Medicare and $65,000 from Medicaid for "meaningful use" of a "certified" EHR starting in 2011. Meaningful use requirements include requirements such as the availability of e-prescribing, electronic exchange of patient health information, and reporting clinical data.

The 8 tips for successful EHR adoption include:

Do the right planning

1. Assess practice readiness
2. Establish budget and project team
3. Manage change
4. Redesign workflow

Choose the right vendor

5. Choose a partner, not a product
6. Consider a network-based service (not software-based)
7. Ensure long-term readiness to adapt to changing reimbursement environment
8. Choose an HER vendor that offers a well-established practice management solution

Download this white paper below to read more about these tips.