The Lowdown on EMRs

Jordan C. Apfeld, BA; A. Alex Jahangir, MD, MMHC; Manish K. Sethi, MD

In 2005, a RAND Corp. report predicted that widespread use of electronic medical records (EMRs) could save the U.S. healthcare system $81 billion per year. Although use of EMRs has increased steadily (Fig. 1), a new RAND analysis finds those earlier predictions overly optimistic. How can EHRs lower costs? Although often used interchangeable, EMRs and EHRs (electronic health records) are quite different.

IPAB Repeal Gets a Second Chance in the House

Kristin Leighty

Bipartisan legislation rapidly gaining support Kristin Leighty Bipartisan legislation introduced by Reps. David P. Roe, MD (R-Tenn.) and Allyson Schwartz (D-Penn.) aims to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a key provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). HR 351, the Protecting Seniors’ Access to Medicare Act, was introduced on Jan. 23, 2013, and has already garnered more than 120 cosponsors.

Is a Permanent Fix Close?

Catherine Boudreaux

For more than a decade, physicians have been subject to annual threats of reductions in reimbursement—each larger than the previous year’s. The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), which debuted in 1997 as a Medicare cost containment strategy, has called for cuts in Medicare payments to physicians every year since 2002.