Meaningful Use Can Cost Millions, Even After EHR Purchase

How much does Meaningful Use cost a healthcare system, beyond the initial price of electronic health record hardware and software? The CIOs of three systems gave answers to that question in a wide-ranging discussion at CHIME's Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio.

Karen Thomas, vice president and CIO of Mainline Health, said her system--which includes four acute-care hospitals and 400 physicians eligible for government EHR incentives--has spent between $3 million and $4 million on its Meaningful Use effort across inpatient and ambulatory care. That's less than the Philadelphia-area healthcare system expects to receive in Stage 1 Meaningful Use rewards, she said. But the incentives will be less than the total amount invested in the EHR system, she added.

Linda Reed, vice president of information systems and CIO of Atlantic Health System in northern New Jersey, said her organization probably will spend about the same as Mainline on Stage 1 of Meaningful Use. Atlantic is a three-hospital system with 1,300 beds and about 300 employed physicians...