HITECH Showers...really, how come we aren't just focusing on Paying for Value?

I am involved with the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS), and our list-serv often brings up good topics. I'll often post my thoughts, with my bias of being a very pragmatic, in-the-trenches primary care physician. I've incorporated some of those thoughts into past posts, but will also occasionally blog the (almost) verbatim posts I've made.

Here is a recent one I wrote, in response to discussions about whether the government is doing the right thing by using the HITECH funds ($39 billion) as "EMR Stimulus money" vs. thinking about restructuring how we pay for care so that EMRs will actually make business sense for physicians:


Yep- we've said it all before, the government (and other payors) need to pay for value, not volume. Align the healthcare system wisely, and there is no need for "stimulus dollars" to push for something which does not make business sense in today's environment. Make it valuable for us to practice high quality medicine - and that will happen… and in fact, the level of innovation in making that happen will be much greater than by trying to force untested EMRs onto everyone… it will mean more teamwork, more clinical standards of care, more checklists, more follow up, more competition…

What I don't get is that almost EVERYONE in healthcare policy knows this to be the case - and yet neither the HITECH bill nor the current healthcare legislation really touches on this.

Yes, there is some money for "experiments" - but we need payment reform as one of the foundations for care improvement. Can you imagine how much better the EMRs and other IT applications would be if they were being created in a world where payment didn't:
1. Rely on massive documentation of visits for any payment - and forced doctors to be the one to do this documentation themselves
2. Insist only doctors to be the ones to deliver care
3. Encourage volume over value

Take away those three restraints and replace with these two tenets… and just imagine what would happen:
1. Allow doctors to be part of a team that took care of patients as a whole - the right type of provider can do the right type of care and document in the way that makes the most sense for care
2. Encourages value over volume - so you can take care of many more people, but actually see less people

Sorry… dreaming again…

So what will happen in the meantime? Smart EMR companies will hopefully start making products that at least allow for better efficiency…It's hard to believe how poorly they have done in this arena to date… mainly all they have done is make it easier to document for higher level visits.

But in this real world, I do give HITECH some credit - MU is painful to look at right now, but at least it is making EMR vendors think more about how their systems can deliver quality. And while the overall reimbursement system has not yet caught up, it is fulfilling its promise of being a "stimulus".

The question will be whether this will be more like the April showers bringing May flowers… or a hailstorm that f's up your car.