EHR

EMR Consulting Business Model

I’ve been thinking about the EMR consulting business model for a long time (check out my first post on EMR consulting back on October 27, 2006). My personal career path has taken me a different direction. I do some occasional consulting for people, but it’s not really my core business. Unfortunately, I don’t scale very well. With that said, I think there’s definitely a business model for a company that does EMR consulting. In fact, today I learned that one of my advertisers and also an EMR consulting company, Enterprise Software Development, was ranked #561 out of the 5000 fastest growing companies in America (see press release ). That’s right. I guess EMR consulting is a good enough business that they can use an EMR consulting business to become one of the fast growing American companies. Plus, I agree with the press release that this next year we’re likely to see EMR consulting grow even more. While I ABHOR EMR sales people who like to call themselves EMR consultants, I think there’s definitely a place in the EMR industry for qualified EMR consultants. In fact, check out this series of EMR consultant posts where I talk about the possible advantages of using an EMR consultant: Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant – Selection Process Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant – EMR Training Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant – Clinical Process Mapping Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant – Comprehensive Technology Support Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant – Improved Clinical Buy-in NOTE: I wrote all these in early 2008. I don’t think too much has changed since then. Although, there are likely more EMR consultant opportunities . Related posts: My EMR Consulting Business Plan I know I’ve talked about being an EMR consultant, but... Possible REC Business Model As I said before, I’m finding the EHR RECs very... Quoted in an Article on EMR Consulting I want to thank Selena Chavis for writing a good...

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$3 Billion Ambulatory EHR Market

This recent Frost and Sullivan study (requires registration to access) has been making the healthcare IT and EMR blog rounds lately. The parts of the study that are most interesting to consider is their estimated EHR market size. A study by Frost & Sullivan predicts that revenue for the U.S. ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) market will double from $1.3 billion in 2009 to an estimated $2.6 billion in 2012. Further, by 2013, the market will reach its peak, posting revenue of $3 billion. However, by 2016 market saturation will have occurred and revenue is expected to fall to $1.4 billion. That’s right. They estimate in 2013 the ambulatory EHR market will be $3 billion. Now compare that number with the $36 billion of EHR stimulus money that’s available (or whichever ARRA EMR stimulus projection you prefer). Are hospitals really going to take that much of the EHR stimulus money? Something just doesn’t feel right about these numbers. Other salient points from the study I wrote about in my posts about Complex Reimbursement as the Real Driver in EHR Adoption and the reshuffling of providers favoring Large EHR vendors . Related posts: Reshuffling of Ambulatory Physicians Favors Large EHR Vendors She [Nancy Fabozzi, a senior industry analyst at Frost &... $18 Billion Might Be Spent to Stimulate EHR Adoption I love how people are saying that $18 billion will... EMR Market Share I regularly am asked what the market share of the...

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Reshuffling of Ambulatory Physicians Favors Large EHR Vendors

She [Nancy Fabozzi, a senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan] said many physician practices are facing financial difficulties and the result is physicians are increasingly selling their practices to hospitals, entering into joint ventures with hospitals, or joining larger group practices. “This whole reshuffling and realignment among ambulatory physicians is going to have a huge impact on the vendor market because many of these 300 vendors that we talk about are a lot of mom and pop EHR companies that have under a million dollars in sales annually,” Fabozzi said. She added that if physician practices are going to be a part of a big hospital network or a large medical practice group they are going to buy EHR products from larger vendors. It’s been becoming pretty clear that many small physician offices are selling off to hospitals or larger group practices. This consolidation has been going on for a while and really is going to change the healthcare industry in dramatic ways. I agree with Nancy Fabozzi quoted by Information Week above, that this consolidation favors the EHR Software that comes from larger EHR vendors. Right or wrong, hospital and large group practices generally select the larger EHR vendors. Related posts: Large EMR Vendor Bias Towards EMR Stimulus One thing I’m starting to notice is that it seems... EMR Implementation in Small and Large Clinics I always love to hear clinics talk about the challenges... Boston Health Network Requires All Physicians to Adopt EHRs by 2009 I recently came across a healthcare IT related blog that...

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Drummond Group and CCHIT Become First Official ONC EHR Certifying Bodies

We finally now have the first ONC approved EHR certification bodies (Officially ONC-ATCB or ATCB or ONC Authorized Testing and Certification Body). The first 2 ONC-ATCB are very familiar names that we’ve been talking about on EMR and HIPAA for a long time: Drummond Group and CCHIT . In an HHS and ONC press release they also noted that “Applications for additional ONC-ATCBs are also under review.” Drummond Group has already posted information on their website about their EHR certification and testing plans. The most useful item is this 10 page EHR Testing, Pricing and Certification guide (PDF). Lots of interesting information in the PDF which I’ll likely talk about later. The pricing however is worth noting now. It’s on page 8 of the PDF document and has certification set at $19,500 for the Complete Remote EHR certification and $23,500 plus travel for the Onsite EHR certification tests. There’s also pricing for the modular certification. I haven’t found any published prices on CCHIT certification, but in the past the CCHIT EHR certification costs were $37,000 for the complete CCHIT certification and $33,000 for the Preliminary ARRA certified EHR. Looks like we might have a bit of an EHR certification price way on our hands. $20k is still a lot of money for EHR certification, but $10-15k difference is quite a bit of money. Here’s a short quote from the CCHIT press release about their time frame for accepting EHR certification applications and when we might see the first certified EHR. CCHIT plans to launch its authorized HHS certification program on September 20 at 1:00 PM Eastern time with a Town Call Web-cast describing its application and testing process. CCHIT will take new health IT developer applications immediately after at http://cchit.org and the first group of HHS certified complete EHRs and EHR modules will be announced within weeks of that launch. More information about the Town Call will be available at http://www.cchit.org/towncalls. The call will be recorded for later viewing. It will be interesting to see if Drummond Group of CCHIT can produce the first officially certified EHR vendor and which vendor will hold that distinction. UPDATE: Weno Healthcare looks to be another potential ONC-ATCB (if they get approved) and their EHR certification pricing looks to be in the $14k-$18k range. Related posts: It’s Official…Drummond Group to Apply as EHR Certifying Body The Drummond Group has just officially announced on their blog... New EHR Certifying Body – Drummond Group I’ve had real problems with the idea of there only... EHR Certifying Bodies I found this interesting tidbit in the final rule for...

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CCHIT Certified EHR Becoming ARRA Certified EHR

Alfred from Infomd.net recently made the following comment : If the product you use is CCHIT certified, it is a pretty safe bet to say that they will be certified under the Meaningful Use rule. Meaningful Use is but a subset of what it takes to become CCHIT certified Here’s my response to Alfred: Alfred, I don’t think that the new certified EHR is a subset of CCHIT. There are some similarities and concepts, but it’s not a subset. However, I think you’re right that many CCHIT certified vendors will become ARRA certified. Mostly because the EHR vendor that has the CCHIT certification has chosen to make EHR certification a priority for their company. So, they’ll likely make the ARRA certification a priority as well. It is worth asking if you want to be tied to an EHR company that focuses so much on certification. One could make the argument that an EHR vendor that focuses so much on EHR certification might not be focusing enough on the customer’s needs. These 2 focuses will obviously create very different EHR products. See Also this post: EMR Stimulus Q&A: Do You Have to Use a CCHIT Certified EHR Vendor? Related posts: Preliminary ARRA Certified and CCHIT Certified As promised, here’s my look into the two certifications that... CCHIT Town Hall Meeting on Preliminary ARRA Certified EHR I’ll be honest with you. For my own health I... EMR Stimulus Q&A: Do You Have to Use a CCHIT Certified EHR Vendor? AK sent me the following EHR Certification question: Is it...

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