The idea that there will be penalties is a joke. The ongoing (10 years and counting) SGR debacle has thoroughly disgusted physicians who have already begun to reduce or completely eliminate Medicare patients from their practice. If Medicare starts to nickel and dime those still willing to take Medicare patients – for not using e-prescribing, not participating in PQRI (which is cash-negative for those who participate) or not implementing EMR, they’re even dumber than they’ve already demonstrated.

Pile on 5010 implementation, ICD-10 CM implementation, another ongoing PECOS fiasco, the interminable MAC transitions, RACs, PERMs, Z-PICs, HEAT, etc. and Medicare (or Congress) thinks a penalty will motivate physicians to buy new software – or that the doctors will tolerate a payment reduction when their 2010 payments are LESS than their 2000 payments?

I can’t remember where I found this quote. Probably on a LinkedIn forum or something. This voice is actually getting louder. Notice that it doesn’t really talk about whether they want to use EMR software or not. It’s really the start of what could be a huge exodus from Medicare as opposed to a revolution against EMR software. Plus, it highlights the fact that doctors (and people in general) don’t want to be forced to do something. Yes, even something that could be a benefit to them. Of course, that’s why I’ll keep telling doctors to not worry about the stimulus and the penalties and focus instead on the list of EMR benefits.