Med Mal News

Representatives Karen Bass (D-CA) and Lee Terry (R-NE) introduced a bill in Congress in August that would extend to all physician assistants financial incentives to encourage them to implement electronic health record (EHR) systems. Currently, only physicians, nurse practitioners and a subset of physician assistants are eligible under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act to seek incentive payments for the adoption and use of EHR systems. The bill, known as the Health IT Modernization for Underserved Communities Act of 2011, H.R. 2729, would amend the Social Security Act to delete from the requirement for financial incentives that the physician assistant practice in a rural health center or in a federally qualified health center. Instead, these professionals would be held to the same standard as physicians and nurse practitioners; they would be able to collect the incentive funds if they adopt qualified HER systems and at least 30% of their patients are Medicaid recipients to whom they provide primary health care services. Robert Wooten, president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, expressed the group's support for the bill in a statement, saying, “The ultimate beneficiaries of electronic medical records are patients, and this bill extends the promise of improved medical care to the Medicaid patients” treated by physician assistants.