The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services developed the EHR incentive program to encourage doctors and hospitals to adopt, upgrade and sharpen their electronic health records to demonstrate meaningful use. The aim is to enhance care quality while reducing costs as well as to boost interoperability, security and accessibility. While some may be concerned that providers would return to their old, paper-based ways once the incentive payments stop flowing, a recent report suggests the EMR market will continue to blossom well after.

Significant growth to continue after incentive payments
The EMR industry has grown greatly since the EHR incentive program began providing doctors and hospitals with incentives for demonstrating meaningful use in 2009. Growth rates averaged 16 percent from 2012 to 2014, and today, the market is worth $25 billion. Unfortunately, 2016 will be the final year that providers can receive Medicare EHR incentive payments.

EHR incentives for Medicaid will continue until 2021 for those who initiate participation in meaningful use by 2016, but these are insignificant compared to Medicare incentives. In fact, a poll conducted by Medical Practice Insider and SERMO revealed that a whopping 55 percent of nearly 2,000 physicians surveyed do not even plan to attest to meaningful use in 2015. 

Such news, combined with the looming end of Medicare incentive payments, has led many in the industry to fear that the EMR market will see a sudden drop in the future. But it seems these fears are unjustified: The EHR market value is actually expected continue to increase even after meaningful use Medicare incentives cease, according to a report by research firm Kalorama Information titled, "EMR 2015: The Market for Electronic Medical Records." It predicts that growth will continue at a rate of 13.4 percent from 2015 to 2019.

As Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information, said in a press release, any potential drop in EHR market is a distant worry.

"Expect a fair amount of competition and stable growth next few years, without incentives boosting the market," Carlson said. "Eventually, there will be market saturation, but this is a bit of a way off, especially in emerging markets."

Penalizing providers: The new incentive to adopt EMRs
The report explains that, while incentives played a large role in getting the ball rolling, many other factors will keep the momentum moving after the period when incentives are available. Penalties for non-compliance will be a major player in encouraging providers to maintain their EHR systems. Kalorama's report provides an interesting metaphor: The incentive payment served as a 'carrot' to entice providers, but now that the carrot is gone, a stick remains to punish providers who do not adopt electronic records for the betterment of care quality, population health and interoperability.

In fact, 2015 will see the introduction of a new penalty that punishes providers for not using EMRs, thereby discouraging a return to paper files. Doctors and hospitals that do not utilize electronic records in 2015 will see a 1 percent reduction in Medicare payments. That penalty will increase to 2 percent in 2016 and 3 percent in 2017, with potential to increase even more in the following years.

Kalorama continues to believe that fear of reimbursement loss will end up driving adoption more than incentives for extra reimbursement, and our forecasts continue to reflect this observation," Carlson said.

According to the report, such penalties will boost market growth by as much as 8 percent in the next five years. System upgrades and international sales will each provide similar growth. Other factors expected to stimulate the market include training, optimization and product support.

Making the most of electronic records
There's no doubt that electronic records are here to stay, so it's essential for providers to embrace the technology that helps enhance the meaningful use of electronic data. A VNA solution can prove to be a worthwhile investment alongside EHRs. VNAs can preserve the integrity of patient data contained within a variety of file types. Because of this great degree of flexibility, VNAs are more versatile than typical picture archiving and communication systems, which can actually compound interoperability issues for organizations that use different vendors.

News brought to you by TeraMedica, Inc., leaders in healthcare enterprise imaging (VNA) solutions.