The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said that federal incentive payments under the meaningful use program are driving the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), which are reducing errors and communicating data to patients.
Since the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program began in 2011, approximately 80% of eligible hospitals and more than 50% of eligible professionals have adopted EHRs and received incentive payments from Medicare and Medicaid, CMS said.
Furthermore, more than 190 million electronic prescriptions have been sent by doctors, physician's assistants, and other healthcare providers using EHRs. In addition, EHRs were used to send more than 13 million reminders to patients about appointments, required tests, or checkups, according to CMS.
Providers have used EHRs to check drug and medication interactions to ensure patient safety more than 40 million times, and they have shared more than 4.3 million care summaries with other providers when patients moved between care settings, CMS noted.
