One of the goals of meaningful use and all the related federal spending of health IT is for EMRs to improve care coordination. But the current reimbursement system that’s heavy on fee-for-service encourages software developers and users alike to focus on documentation of billable events rather than coordination of care, a new study finds.

Read more on EMRs and care coordination

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As we get closer to 2011, the health IT initiatives are heating up. Here’s a timely article on this subject:

Last week, one day shy of its Dec. 31 2009 deadline, the Dept. of Health and Human Services issued its long-awaited near-final rules defining the “meaningful use” requirements doctors and hospitals must meet to cash in on the government’s $20 billion-plus health IT incentive programs starting 2011.

Read more on Meaningful Use by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

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An article posted on ZD Net discusses a new online service that helps patients avoid being “non-adherent”, i.e. to take their meds. The American economy loses $177-300 billion per year because people don’t take their medicine properly.

Sean Teare is president of InnovationRx, a Massachusetts-based unit of a British company which aims both to cut the cost of nagging people to take their meds and improve the rate at which they do.

Will this new service work?

As to their business model, “We’re a subset of disease management. If you don’t improve adherence you can lose the impact of other changes. Health plans are looking for short term ROI, and we can show that.”

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Even if you haven’t yet made the leap to full electronic medical records (EMR) implementation, chances are you’re already using a computerized system for scheduling, billing, or other administrative functions. And unless you only have one computer in the office, it’s likely that the computers are connected by some sort of network.

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