How can you define what benefits you will receive from MU?  Well monetarily there are incentive payments for adoption and use of a certified EHR and reporting on each of the required measures.

A second monetary benefit is cost savings realized with a successful implementation of an EHR/EMR. This benefit is realized through the possible elimination of a mostly paper-based office.  If you don’t think that there is a savings in reducing your use of paper, I urge you to look at your budget and figure in the cost of paper, delivery of the product, and the ink cartridges as well as the cost of making copies.

There are so many non-monetary benefits from moving forward to Meaningful Use.

Just to name a few are:

Practice Efficiencies – One of the greatest benefits is an increase in practice efficiencies and a cost savings by having access to patient data. An EHR allows for much easier access to computerized records notes, laboratory, and radiology information.  It also eliminates the poor penmanship we have all seen and couldn’t read for years.

Patient Information – Through the Health Information Exchange, records, reports, and test will be available electronically to providers.  A properly used EHR will be able to share information between different organizations and can result in much efficiency in the delivery of health care.  Insurance providers, patients, physicians, and facilities can all see a reduction in costly test being completed in a redundant manner.   This would help with improving care coordination.

The Age of Technology – Another benefit could be new patients that want to see a physician that is using the latest and greatest technology, since after all with all the advances in medicine, why wouldn’t they want to see a provider that is current in modern day medicine.   This would be seen as an improvement and convenience of patient care.  It also involves the patients in their own care.

Quality of Patient Care – Clinical outcomes include improvements in the quality of care, a reduction in medical errors, and other improvements in patient-level measures that describe the appropriateness of care. Organizational outcomes, on the other hand, have included such items as financial and operational performance, as well as satisfaction among patients and clinicians who use EHRs.

There are many more benefits and just as many difficulties with the adoption of and EHR and attesting for Meaningful Use. Keep in mind that in the short term there is excellent monetary incentive, in the long run an EHR is much more productive and efficient which, in turn, results in monetary savings as well.

Stay on top of changes and keep charging ahead and forging your own future.