Did incentives boost EHR adoption?

PARCA eNews – Aug. 3, 2015 – A new study has found that adoption of any EHR system may have increased by 7 percent above the level predicted due to the Meaningful Use incentives using one statistical analysis. 

The authors note, however, that the increase disappears under alternative statistical models and show that other factors played a role in the adoption of EHRs. The researchers at the Universities of Alabama, Indiana, and Johns Hopkins published their findings July 30 in the Journal of Medical Informatics Association JAMIA.

The authors used Bass and Gamma Shifted Gompertz (G/SG) diffusion models of the adoption of “Any” and “Basic” EHR systems in physicians’ offices using consistent data series covering 2001–2013 and 2006–2013. The objective was to ferret out how much of EHR adoption was stimulated during either a PrePay (2009–2010) period of subsidy anticipation or a PostPay (2011–2013) period when payments were actually made.

They found that adoption of “Any” EHR system may have increased by as much as 7 percentage points above the level predicted in the absence of the MU subsidies. They found no substantial effects, however, due to incentives for adoption of “Basic” systems. The models suggest that adoption of EHRs was largely driven by physicians duplicating their peers’ technology use, or in response to mandates.