By Pete Rivera
The battle is on to cut budgets, survive the next few lean months and keep operations going. But what is missing is the solid strategy for organizations and individual providers to capitalize on the HITECH funds that will soon be available. Looking at some of the numbers, here is what it looks like for Providers:
Starting | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Totals |
Year | |||||||
2011 | $18,000 | $12,000 | $8,000 | $4,000 | $2,000 | $0 | $44,000 |
2012 | $18,000 | $12,000 | $8,000 | $4,000 | $2,000 | $44,000 | |
2013 | $15,000 | $12,000 | $8,000 | $4,000 | $39,000 | ||
2014 | $12,000 | $8,000 | $4,000 | $24,000 | |||
2015 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
And this is the estimated funding available for hospitals:
Start | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Totals |
Date | |||||||
2011 | $1,256,733 | $942,550 | $628,367 | $314,183 | $0 | $0 | $3,143,844 |
2012 | $1,256,733 | $942,550 | $628,367 | $314,183 | $0 | $3,143,845 | |
2013 | $1,256,733 | $942,550 | $628,367 | $314,183 | $3,143,846 | ||
2014 | $942,550 | $628,367 | $314,183 | $1,887,114 | |||
2015 | $628,367 | $314,183 | $944,565 |
The hard facts are that you don’t just turn on an EHR project overnight. Besides securing resources and planning capital budget expenditures, you have to foster a sense of commitment from your clinical staff. Now is the time to layout that foundation. By the time the first payout year hits, most vendor resources and implementation specialists will be fully allocated and you’re stuck at the bottom of the “go-live” calendar (and the tail end of the funding allocations). So I am wondering what organizations are doing to get ready. Are they waiting for the next new EHR? Are they waiting to see if the government will mandate use? Are they hitting the snooze button because its just too much to deal with right now?