Few Psychiatrists Take Advantage Of Medicare EHR Incentives
Multiple hurdles continue to hamper psychiatrists’ adoption of new health information technology and thus the receipt of Medicare financial incentives.
According to a report released October 24 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 183,712 health care professionals were awarded a total of $2.8 billion in federal incentive payments for participation last year in a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services program that rewards eligible hospitals and physicians for demonstrating the “meaningful use” of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.
These figures represent a nearly threefold increase over the first year of the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, when 58,331 providers were awarded $994.6 million in incentives.
However, when compared with other specialty practice physicians, psychiatrists received the smallest amount of program payments in 2012. Just 7.1 percent of psychiatrists were awarded Medicare EHR incentives last year, compared with 28.7 percent of obstetricians/gynecologists, 41.2 percent of neurologists, and 54.3 percent of gastroenterologists.
“Psychiatry is way behind its peers,” said Steven Daviss, M.D., president of FUSE Health Strategies and chair of APA’s Committee on Electronic Health Records. “Multiple reasons exist, including poor usability, exclusion of mental health centers from program incentives, relative lack of EHR vendors specializing in our field, and concerns about confidentiality and security.”
Despite the poor showing for psychiatrists as incentive-program participants, as a group, the number of specialists receiving incentive payments rose from 8.6 percent in 2011 to 29.3 percent in 2012. And the number of solo practitioners awarded payments also increased year over year from 8 percent to 30.3 percent.
The report also showed that physicians who signed an agreement to receive technical assistance from a Regional Extension Center were 1.9 times more likely to have been awarded Medicare EHR payments than those who did not. Additionally, providers in the top third in terms of Medicare Part B charge amounts or number of encounters were approximately 2.5 times more likely to receive incentives than those in the bottom third for charges or encounters.
Among the GAO’s other findings were that the largest proportion (32 percent) of physicians awarded Medicare EHR incentive payments last year were located in the South, a significant majority (90 percent) of those receiving incentives practiced in urban areas, and professionals awarded their degrees less than 30 years ago were 1.3 times more likely to receive payments than those awarded degrees more than 30 years ago.
To help increase the number of psychiatrists eligible for incentive payments through the Medicare EHR program, Daviss encouraged the expansion of EHR adoption incentives to cover the settings in which most people with mental health and substance use disorders receive treatment.
“APA is also committed to working with EHR vendors to ensure that their products are useful for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals,” Daviss said, noting that “the EHR section of the APA website includes a detailed list of EHR functionalities that are needed for behavioral health EHRs.” ■
Extensive information about use of EHRs in psychiatry is posted on APA’s website at http://www.psychiatry.org/ehr. The GAO report “Electronic Health Records: Number and Characteristics of Providers Awarded Medicare Incentive Payments for 2011–2012” is posted at http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/658534.pdf.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Published online: 18 December 2013
Published in print: December 7, 2013 – December 20, 2013
Keywords
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Export Citations
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.
View Options
View options
Get Access
Login options
Already a subscriber? Access your subscription through your login credentials or your institution for full access to this article.
Personal login Institutional Login Open Athens loginNot a subscriber?
PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5-TR® library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.
Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).