To accelerate adoption of electronic medical records (EMR), GE Healthcare and its financial arm, GE Capital have made $100 million available in the form of interest-free loans to hospitals, doctors' groups, clinics and provider networks.

The effort is the first big announcement in GE's "healthymagination" effort to increase access to technology and reduce cost. The EMR loan program, Stimulus Simplicity, contains two core elements: a commitment to ensure the EMRs are certified (a precursor to federal stimulus reimbursement eligibility) and an interest-free loan with deferred payments. The program addresses some of the biggest barriers to EMR adoption faced by healthcare providers, namely uncertainty around as yet undefined government standards, and interim funding to cover the capital investment.

"What we have been hearing from our customers is excitement about focus on health IT and the [federal government] stimulus program to drive the adoption of EMRs. However, there have been concerns: One is access to capital funding that will have to come into play now to adopt EMRs. Reimbursement from the government--the flow of federal money -- doesn't start till 2011," said Vishal Wanchoo, President and CEO, GE Healthcare IT. "The second concern is uncertainty in terms of discussions that are ongoing now about qualified EMR and what determines 'meaningful use,' which providers have to prove in order to get reimbursed."

GE is offering upfront money with 0% financing to encourage EMR adoption right now, and the company is putting it on the line and guaranteeing that its EMR solutions will meet the future standards for certification and reimbursement.

"[Customers] can implement EMRs, get ready to demonstrate meaningful use and, once they do get reimbursement from the government they can start to pay GE back," Wanchoo told DOTmed News. "So it really helps their cash flow."

GE's Stimulus Simplicity program helps physician offices and hospitals that invest in GE's EMR products, GE Centricity® EMR and Centricity Enterprise solutions, maximize the potential benefits of the increased focus on EMR under President Obama's stimulus funding bill. GE's financial services business, GE Capital, will provide the financing with GE Healthcare providing its EMR product certification warranty. The program is open for application by all providers who are eligible for the ARRA federal funds, and not just GE's current customers.

Under the HITECH Act of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), federal stimulus funds won't become available for EMRs until 2011 and the federal government has yet to set specific guidelines for determining what constitutes a "qualified" system. To overcome these barriers to immediate adoption of EMRs, GE is making this unique commitment to support customers' ability to meet "meaningful use" standards. GE is now offering its HITECH Warranty for Centricity EMR and Centricity Enterprise solutions and zero-interest funding with deferred payments to qualified buyers so they can have immediate access to this technology without the up-front capital costs.

The federal government is taking a measured approach to defining EMR standards, which may prove to be a good idea in the long run since systems must be interoperable, secure, and effective, providing a "meaningful use" of information technology.

"That 'meaningful use' definition will actually drive quality improvement in the health care system," Wanchoo told DOTmed News. "We have the confidence that our products will do it now and that is why we are providing the warranty, saying we will keep up with the certification criteria. We have already demonstrated through the use of our records that we can actually drive quality and lower costs. We think we line up with the [ARRA] program very well."

By implementing EMR now, health care providers can gather evidence to demonstrate their qualification for federal dollars as soon as they become available.

"Customers will hear of the [Stimulus Simplicity] program, take an interest, and potentially start to implement EMR this year and get ready to demonstrate a year's worth of meaningful use so they could be an early recipient of the stimulus dollars that are coming down," he said.

The financing is part of GE's healthymagination initiative, a $6 billion commitment to improve access, affordability and quality of healthcare. Under healthymagination (http://www.healthymagination.com/), GE supports the expanded use of healthcare IT to speed communications, while limiting variation and controlling costs. By accelerating EMR and Health Information Exchange (HIE) adoption, GE expects to help remove $28 billion in cost from the health system while improving access to better and more affordable care.

Read More About It:

Read a rural health provider example and more details about Stimulus Simplicity in DOTmed's Press Room:
https://www.dotmed.com/news/story/9355/

Read more about GE's healthymagination program:
https://www.dotmed.com/news/story/9023/

Read a report on rural health care in the July 2009 issue of DOTmed Business News.