More than 600 DOs gathered this week for a special AOA town hall meeting and panel discussion during OMED in New Orleans. Focusing on health information technology (HIT) and health care reform, the gathering was the fifth town hall meeting hosted by the AOA during the past year.

IBM executive Janet Marchibroda kicked off the panel discussion, providing information about federal funding available to physicians for implementing HIT in their practices. In order to quality for up to $44,000 in Medicare bonus payments, physicians must meet Medicare eligibility requirements for HIT by the first quarter of 2012.

According to Marchibroda, one of the goals set forth in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is to achieve a 90% HIT adoption rate for physicians. "Right now, studies show that only about 4% of physicians have fully functioning HIT systems, so we have a long way to go," she said.

Setting Standards

Describing the cost of implementation and lack of time as the greatest barriers to adoption for most physicians, Marchibroda said the burden of transitioning paper-based offices to electronic records often weighs heaviest on small practices. "This kind of transition requires significant changes in the way you run your offices. You can’t just plug a computer into the wall and have it do all the work for you," she said.

Setting interoperable standards for HIT systems was a chief concern among lawmakers as they crafted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Marchibroda pointed out during the panel discussion. "Simply sprinkling electronic systems that don’t connect to anything across the country is not going to get us anywhere," she said. "You need more than just wires. You need standards in place, so the data makes sense and everyone speaks the same language."

Physicians who meet the standards set forth in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to qualify as "meaningful" HIT users by early 2012 are eligible to receive the following bonuses to their Medicare reimbursement payments:

• 1st year: $18,000
• 2nd year: $12,000
• 3rd year: $8,000
• 4th year: $4,000
• 5th year: $2,000

Physicians who become "meaningful" users by 2013 or 2014 will receive less, and Medicare will begin penalizing physicians who have not adopted HIT beginning in 2015. To be considered a "meaningful" user, physicians must adopt a certified electronic health record (EHR) system that will interface with other HIT systems to facilitate information exchange, and they must report on clinical quality measures. “Physicians should begin preparing their practices for this transition now,” Marchibroda urged OMED attendees. “It will take a lot of time and effort to make this investment count.”

Eye on Reform

During the second segment of the town hall meeting, a panel of experts comprised of White House Senior Health Policy Advisor Kavita Patel, MD; Joseph Antos, PhD, of the American Enterprise Institute; and David Kendall of The Third Way; shared their insights on health care reform and how it will impact physicians and their patients.

Stressing the need for clear communication from lawmakers in the health care reform debate, Kendall said public perception of the plan could be greatly improved by emphasizing the benefits it offers for patients. "Our research has shown that the majority of individuals don't think the proposed plan is going to benefit them," he explained. "We need a new approach that communicates the stability and security these health care measures will provide."

However, not all panel contributors were sold on the idea that proposed health care reform legislation will result in better access to care for patients. "We should be asking if this plan is really going to work and whether it is going to bring about the kind of changes people are hoping for," Antos said. "In order to successfully introduce a new product into the marketplace, a seller has to offer a better deal than competitors. You need to offer greater benefits and lower costs, and it's going to be difficult for a public plan to do that."

Photo: White House Senior Health Policy Advisor Kavita Patel, MD (left); David Kendall of The Third Way; and Joseph Antos, PhD, of the American Enterprise Institute; led a panel discussion during the AOA's town hall meeting at OMED in New Orleans.