Where did the legislature make a wrong turn?
As we mentioned in our previous post on the passage of HR 1, HITECH legislation is providing incentives for physicians to be reimbursed for the adoption of “certified EHRs”. Certification, by its very nature, is a time consuming (some might say time wasting) exercise. Certification to standards is even worse (ever been a part of a Standards making body – they move at a glacial pace). Stating that physicians will only be reimbursed for adopting certified EMRs basically puts the death nail into any innovative ideas that break from the cumbersome certification process or don’t adhere to some archaic standard like CCD. Let us not also forget that the very word “certified” strikes fear into the heart of any Venture Capitalist (VC). Honestly, who in their right mind would ever invest in a start-up that need to go through some arduous certification process to enter a market, a certification process established by players in a given market? No, certification is good at creating moats and castl
