IT: Govt help one way to get docs to use EMRs

June 27, 2005 — Girish Kumar of eClinicalWorks runs a successful business that is emerging as one of the leaders in getting full EMRs into the hands of physicians in small practices. While larger group practices of 25 or even 50 or more doctors are adopting EMRs at a rapid rate, the pace is still relatively slow among the smaller practices, which represent the vast majority of American physicians.

The federal government has been talking about interoperability, but Kumar says it hasn't been paying enough attention to getting the "nodes" of the smaller practices onto the "network." He calls for either an outright subsidy or changes in the way Medicare pays physicians (i.e., more money for those who invest in IT) to get the smaller practices over the hump. In exchange, the government should force vendors to become truly interoperable.

About eClinicalWorks EMR & PM

eClinicalWorks is the leading provider of unified end-to-end ambulatory clinical information systems designed to for medical organizations looking to ensure first class patient care. The company’s solution consists of two major components: eClinicalWorks EMR and eClinicalWorks PM. eClinicalWorks EMR allows physician practices to manage the patient flow, specifically letting practices access patient records immediately—either in-house or via remote access—electronically communicate with the referring physicians and securely send consult notes and clinical data. The second component of the unified solution, eClinicalWorks PM eliminates the roadblocks inherent in healthcare billing processes, allowing practices to submit claims electronically, track the status of claims and communicate online with payers to confirm patient eligibility, what services will be paid and when. For more information about eClinicalWorks products please visit http://www.eclinicalworks.com/products.php

About eClinicalWorks