Insurer Finds EMRs Won't Pay Off For Its Doctors

American Medical News
March 10, 2008

One health plan has come to a conclusion that many physicians already have reached: The financial benefits of office-based electronic medical records systems are not worth the cost to doctors.

Relying on information from past studies, including an American Medical Association estimate that doctors see only 11 cents of every dollar saved through the use of information technology, BlueCross BlueShield of Massachusetts recently announced that it has decided not to require physicians to install an EMR to participate in its bonus program.

But the Massachusetts Blues did find value in information technology that physicians would need to use.  Its own cost-benefit analysis concluded that computerized physician order entry makes financial sense in the hospital setting, and it said in February that it would require health systems to install CPOE by 2012 to participate in the bonus program.

..."One of the things we researched and were concerned about [was] making sure [hospitals] had the money to invest.  Were there any hospitals that would have problems coming up with capital?" asked Robert Mandel, MD, vice president of health services for the Massachusetts Blues.

"For physicians I think it is more complicated, and [EMRs] are more expensive.  The return on investment doesn't materialize for practices like it does in hospitals."

The insurer made its announcement about the CPOE requirements on the heels of a study conducted by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and the New England Healthcare Institute.  The study found that CPOEs could help prevent 55,000 medication errors in the state of Massachusetts and provide an annual cost savings of $170 million statewide, or $2.7 million per hospital. 

Link to Full Article: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/03/10/bil20310.htm