While CMS created the Meaningful Use incentive program to help ease physician’s transition to Electronic Health Records (EHRs), many believe federal payouts aren’t enough to cover the full cost of EHR adoption for small practices.
By successfully attesting to each stage in the EHR incentive program, physicians are eligible for up to $44,000 in payments over five years. Unfortunately, data from the Institute for Healthcare Research and Improvement at Baylor Healthcare system indicates the average first-year cost of an EHR system can run upwards of $46,000.
To actually benefit from the Meaningful Use incentive payments, providers need to purchase an EHR that keeps costs low throughout all stages of the adoption process and provides a healthy return on investment in the long run.
So what can providers do to relieve the burden of Meaningful Use? Cloud-based EHRs may be the answer.
Initial EHR Costs
First off, physicians looking at client-server EHR systems need to take hardware and installation costs into consideration. These initial financial hits can hamstring profitability during the initial year of EHR implementation. That’s before even taking training costs into account.
Practices looking to avoid the high startup costs of client-server EHRs should look to cloud-based EHR software solutions. CareCloud Charts, for example, uses a Software as a Service (SaaS) pricing model to maintain a low, predictable monthly rate.
Long-Term EHR Costs
Licensing, maintenance and Internet fees are all EHR expenses that can’t be avoided entirely. However, they can be lessened with a cloud-based solution.
CDW’s 2011 Cloud Computing Tracking Poll found that 88% of healthcare organizations using cloud computing reduced long-term IT costs by an average of 20% annually. In the private practice settings, these kinds of substantial savings can later be invested into other critical endeavors, such as starting a new marketing initiative or hiring additional staff.
Unexpected EHR Costs
With client-server EHRs, each upgrade usually requires an IT person to come in to handle installation — a service that normally doesn’t come cheap. And with healthcare regulations shifting so rapidly, upgrades in response to government mandates are becoming more common.
Cloud-based EHRs like Charts, on the other hand, update automatically at no additional cost. The only financial worry for the user is the flat monthly rate mentioned earlier.
The government push for EHR implementation is already in full swing, but choosing a cloud-based EHR has been shown to save physicians money in the short term and over the long haul. Cloud-based EHR software will make your Meaningful Use incentive payment a profit generator rather than a financial bandage.
If you’d like to find out how our cloud-based EHR will save your practice money, please contact us at 1-877-342-7517 or hello@carecloud.com.
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