Inside the stimulus package: Cash for using electronic
health records

Here comes an incentive from the Feds to adopt EHR for your practice (quickly!) if you see Medicare or Medicaid patients

Dr. Bates is Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee.

The author reports that he is President and Chief Executive Officer of digiChart, Inc., which develops, sells, and supports digiChart OB-GYN, an electronic health record specific to ObGyn practice.

It’s no longer news—this past February 17, President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion economic stimulus package—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009—into law.^1,2 But did you know that, of the approximately $150 billion in the Act allocated for health care, $19.2 billion is for healthcare information technology, including $17 billion earmarked for incentive payments to hospitals and physicians for adopting electronic health records (EHR)?