We talk with hundreds of physician practices each month. Their biggest question: “What does the economic stimulus package mean for me?”

Practices understand that up to $45 billion is allocated to provide incentive for physicians to adopt EHRs. However, many questions remain about how and when providers will receive stimulus funds.

In case you haven’t heard (or aren’t obsessively following IT trends like we are), the great trend in software is the evolution from traditional “on-premises” software (e.g. client/server software installed at the office) to Software as a Service (SaaS) (i.e. web-based applications that are managed in the vendors’ data center and accessed “on-demand” through a web browser).

The smartphone industry is on fire. iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre and Google are all in the hunt for dominance. We want to know one thing: Which phone will become the device of choice for healthcare providers?

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the ARRA, also known as the Stimulus Bill) allocates $51 billion to healthcare. Universities that want to establish and/or expand health informatics programs are entitled stimulus bill funds. But what’s available? Who qualifies? And how can universities take advantage of the funds?

With the Economic Stimulus Bill signed and available to subsidize EHR purchases (for more information see “The Stimulus Bill and Meaningful Use of Qualified EHRs/EMRs“), we are seeing a dramatic increase in electronic health records (EHR) buyer interest. Assuming these buyers make use of the stimulus subsidy to buy an EHR, we expect to see a lot of EHR failures over the next couple years.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve noticed a marked change in medical office’s views on the web-based, or Software as a Service (SaaS), model of using EMR and practice management systems. Among practices looking for new software, we’ve observed:

As a physician, you earned an MD, but probably not an MBA. But in today’s health care environment you have to run your practice like a business in addition to providing great patient care. It’s critical to have efficient staffing, minimize costs and maximize your reimbursements and collections. Here we present five ways in which an electronic medical record (EMR) can help you achieve these goals.

Updated on March 18th, 2009 – The CCHIT is becoming increasingly relevant as the Department of Health and Human Services develops guidelines for what constitutes a “qualified EMR.” To be eligible for EMR subsidies outlined in the Stimulus Bill, healthcare providers must demonstrate use of a “qualified EMR” in a “meaningful manner” (for more information, read The Stimulus Bill and Meaningful Use of Qualified EHRs / EMRs).