Addressing Client Objections To EHR

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

Are your healthcare IT customers concerned about the cost of a new EHR (electronic health records) system? Make sure you let them know they’ll probably get their money back in less than a year.

Most physicians end up satisfied with their EHR systems in the long run. Any client who’s concerned about how a system will work out for them should be aware of this. It’s likely though, that satisfaction isn’t their main concern.

A recent study by Medscape revealed that 37 percent of the physicians responding to their survey who weren’t using an EHR, cited cost as the main impediment. Being able to address this concern directly with future clients will go a long way in you successfully navigating the sales process.

Discussing The Client Investment

An original paper out of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, has revealed that your clients can expect to see a return on their initial investment in less than a year.
The study, authored by Yeona Jang, MSc, MBA, PhD, Michel A Lortie, Ing, and Steven Sanche, MSc examined the financial impact of an EHR system on primary care practices. The study had two primary goals,

• Assessing the ROI of EHR in primary care practices
• Identifying the principal factors affecting the realization of a positive ROI from system implementation.

The study used a break-even point as the ROI indicator of EHR investment, and collected data from 17 community-based, primary care clinics that were using EHR systems.

The Results

The data found that the majority of clinics recouped their initial EHR investment in 10 months — 95 percent recovered investment in periods ranging from 6.2 to 17.4 months. They also saw more patients, with an average increase of 27 percent in the active-patients-to-clinician-FTE (full time equivalent) ratio. Additionally, the clinics saw a 10 percent increase in the active-patients-to-clinical-support-staff-FTE ratio after system implementation. The study determined that the increases in patient-to-clinician ratios were positively associated with the EHR implementations and likely substantial contributors to the 10 month average break even period.

Conclusions For VARs

This means that your primary care clinic clients can reasonably expect to see a positive ROI from their EHR implementation. As the study conclusions emphasize though, your clients will need to be made aware that they cannot expect to see a positive ROI immediately after implementation, and that their own abilities to leverage the EHR system will play a role in the speed at which they see a return.

To see optimal benefit, a clinic will need policies that provide support to help primary care practices successfully make EHR-enabled changes, such as support of clinic workflow optimization with an EHR system.

To learn more about EHR opportunities you may be overlooking, read “EHR Vendors Missing Out On ACO Opportunities.”