After A 'Bridge' Year For Meaningful Use, 2014 Could Be Painful For Providers

The electronic health record world covered a lot of ground in 2013, some of it positive, some of it not. Here's our annual look at the top stories that dominated the headlines in FierceEMR in 2013--and a few that we might expect to see in 2014.

2013: A bridge year

The "middle" movies in trilogies--"Catching Fire" for "The Hunger Games" series or "The Two Towers" for "The Lord of the Rings" series--sometimes are referred to as "bridge" movies. They may be fine on their own, but their main purpose is to bridge the gap from the beginning to the end (or beyond, if the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise is any indication.)

That's what 2013 was for EHRs. We're two years past the 2011 onset of the Meaningful Use program, the early adoption and the initial fanfare. Providers are beginning to get used to them. Adoption rates are continuing to climb. The government has paid out more than $17 billion in incentive payments. EHRs clearly are here to stay.