EssentiaLink Reveals a Startling Fact About the Stimulus Plan

Westminster, CO, March 14, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Stimulus Bill puts small and independent medical practices at risk. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the Stimulus Bill, contains significant and sweeping changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA)

The changes place a strong emphasis on Electronic Health Reporting (EHR). For numerous reasons EHR cuts deeply into the profits for many health care providers. To make matters worse, the computers, software and training to implement EHR can be well beyond the budgets of smaller providers.

Failure to adopt EHR puts small practices at a distinct disadvantage.

A recent Infoworld Article points out $17 of the $19 Billion allocated for EHR is intended for incentive payments to adopt EHR. Without EHR, small offices will find it very difficult to remain competitive and survive. Facing extinction, it is expected that many small practices will create and/or join cooperative groups in order to distribute the high cost of implementation and compliance across a larger group.

According to EssentiaLink’s CEO, Bill Douglas, “Legal aspects aside, there is much to consider when combining to share resources. From our experience, many companies do not fully benefit from the economies of scale because of ineffective merging of IT resources. For example when each member insists on maintaining their own IT staff and systems rather than combining and using the resources of the collective.”

Merging practices or joining cooperatives is not simple nor to be taken lightly. And, with so many other things to be considered, computer and Information Technology often gets too little attention.

By stepping back and revisiting their business goals, many practices have found that using Business Process Outsourcing services to manage their Information Technology not only saves them considerable money, it enables them to focus more attention on providing health care.

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