Expense of Health Information Technology

The use of HIT can be a controversial subject when it comes to dealing with the expense of implementing new technologies. “…the biggest impediment is financial, which results in the misalignment of cost and benefits.” (Hersh, 2273) While the hospital or physician who pays for the technology may see some benefit, Hersh says 11%, many other branches of the medical field benefit at no expense when electronic medical records (EMRs) are utilized. On the flip side the savings when implementing EMRs is significant and something to consider. According to a group of authors who have explored the savings and cost of health IT there is $12.5 billion in potential savings when only electronic-claims and online enrollment are evaluated. (Girosi, 80) An important dynamic of applying EHRs is to decide whether or not whoever pays for them should reap the financial benefit. Since the clinic, hospital, or institution that incurs the initial cost of attaining equipment, transferring records, and the expense of maintenance wants to benefit from there expenditures there is a discrepancy as to how they should be reimbursed. One way for physicians and hospitals to recover some of their expense would be to implement a “pay for performance” system. (Hersh, 2274) In fact, “policy makers in the U.S. have employed a variety of cost-control and supply-side mechanisms, including prospective payment systems, managed care…and pay-for-performance.” (Hofmann, 5) These methods could help alleviate some of the financial burden and also help divide the expense among insurance companies, laboratories, and patients. Another problem is how to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to apply the use of electronic medical records. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) was developed to promote HIT on a national level. Part of their mission is to make funds available on both a national and federal level in order to pursue that technology has a place to thrive in all communities. (healthit.hhs.gov)