A Tale of Two Angels
Since 2009, extra Medicare and Medicaid payments have been available to eligible clinicians and hospitals that become "meaningful users" of certified electronic health records, or EHRs. So far, the policy has doubled the proportion of U.S. physicians and tripled the proportion of hospitals with basic EHRs. <br /><br />
In a <a href="/publications/journal-article/2013/feb/tale-two-angels">new essay</a> published online today by the <em>Annals of Internal Medicine</em>, Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal, M.D., former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, weighs in on whether the federal government’s investment has been justified. In his piece, Blumenthal envisions two opposing angels, one championing bold experimentation in the face of mounting health system challenges, and the other warning against the potential for fraud and abuse. <br />
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Visit <a href="/publications/journal-article/2013/feb/tale-two-angels">commonwealthfund.org</a> to find out which one should win the day, and tweet a comment to <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidBlumenthal" target="_blank">@davidblumenthal</a>. <br />