Louisiana Initiatives Encourage Adoption of Health Information Technology

Louisiana's health information technology efforts have given the state several advantages in applying for a CMS grant program, CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems said on Monday, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. Under the pilot program, physicians who adopt electronic health records and perform highly on quality measures can earn a Medicare bonus of as much as $58,000 over five years, with a practice maximum of $290,000 over the five-year period, according to Weems.

Louisiana's advantages include:

• A regional health information exchange, a network that allows physicians to access patients' electronic health records;
  
  
• A chartered value exchange, a collaborative effort by health plans, employers, providers and consumers to encourage health IT adoption, and provider price and quality data; and
  
  
• State funding for health IT projects.