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March 07, 2013 at 06:58 AM
The Obama administration Wednesday announced a major push to prioritize the adoption of health information technology in the health care industry in 2013.
One major initiative of the plan is to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records among physicians, while also aiming to improve interoperability.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner praised the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) for “improving the way care is delivered while lowering costs.”
“We are already seeing benefits, such as a reduction in hospital readmissions due to these reforms,” she said in a statement. “Health IT and the secure exchange of information across providers are crucial to reforming the system, and must be a routine part of care delivery.”
HHS is aiming for half of all physician offices to use electronic health records by the end of this year. EHR adoption has tripled since 2010, increasing to 44 percent in 2012 and computerized physician order entry has more than doubled (increasing 168 percent) since 2008, the department says.
Still, EHR adoption has not been as fast as many have hoped, as many doctors have had a hard time accepting and using them.
