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Free EMR by Medicare?

Is anything ever free these days? Maybe so.

Instigated by the incredibly slow adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) by doctors across the nation, Medicare is announcing it will begin offering doctors free electronic medical record software solutions.

Both upfront and ongoing costs have been critical factors in the lagging EMR adoption rate. Medicare hopes that by providing doctors with a free or very low-cost system, doctors will readily adopt EMR putting healthcare providers in America on a common system, thereby, providing Medicare and the general public with obvious, health, reporting and billing benefits.

Free EMR comes with strings attached

Practice Fusion recently announced a free EMR for private practice physicians by permitting pharmaceutical companies to advertise within the EMR and on the web-based patient portal. Concerns of a conflict of interest and of patient privacy has caused many practices to think twice before jumping in.

Electronic records catching on with doctors, patients alike

During a time when President Bush and many others are calling for improved health-care efficiency through technology, Hoffman and other doctors in Murfreesboro have been pioneering the effort here. Moving to electronic records has also helped Hoffman respond quicker to patient needs. When the medication Vioxx was recalled, she and her staff were able to do a computer search for patients on that drug.