The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 made a significant investment to encourage the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by healthcare providers and the chiropractic industry.

Under the new program, due to begin in 2011, physicians — including DCs — are eligible for incentive payments totaling more than $40,000 for meeting EHR standards developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Conversely, healthcare providers who have not implemented EHR technology by 2014 will face Medicare fee schedule reductions.

According to a new study, total cost to purchase and implement electronic health record systems averages $46,000 for a primary care practice staffing five

physicians. Researchers in Texas studied 26 practices of various sizes that were a part of HealthTexas Provider Network.

Because of variables in practices, the average cost per physician might not convey exactly to smaller, independent practices. Researchers found that the average cost to develop an EHR infrastructure included approximately:

• $25,000 per practice for cables and wireless Internet
• $7,000 per physician for personal computers, printers and scanners
• $17,100 in maintenance costs per physician for the first year, which included software licensing fees, domain hosting, technical support and networking costs.

To read more about the study, click here.