Members of the College of Health Information Management Executives are "cautiously optimistic" about their chances for achieving stimulus funding under the HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Of the 152 CIOs who responded to an August 2010 survey, 28 percent said they expect to qualify for stimulus funding in the first six months of fiscal year 2011, which begins Oct. 1, 2010, while 62 percent said they expect to qualify between April 1, 2011 and Sept. 30, 2012, which marks the end of Stage 1 of the incentive program.
Ten percent believe they will not qualify for stimulus funds until fiscal years 2013 or 2014.
“CIOs are still early in the discovery process. We don’t yet have a complete understanding of the certification process and its impact on providers,” said Pamela McNutt, senior vice president and CIO of the Methodist Health System in Dallas and chairperson of CHIME’s Policy Steering Committee. “The reality of what it will take to qualify for stimulus funding won’t be fully known until our vendors have obtained certification.”
Officials say expectations vary depending on the type of healthcare organization and its size. For example, 38 percent of CIOs from academic medical centers expect to qualify for stimulus funding within the first six months, compared with only 22 percent of CIOs at community hospitals. In general, executives of larger organizations say they are more likely to qualify for funding within six months, compared with responses from smaller facilities.
While respondents generally predict a high degree of success in qualifying for stimulus funding, two-thirds of respondents from hospitals with 100 to 199 beds say they will get funding within the first two fiscal years in which the Stage 1 criteria are in effect. By contrast, nearly all respondents from facilities with 600 to 999 beds expect to qualify for stimulus funds.
CHIME is expected to submit a list of questions to federal officials requesting clarification on key questions on various facets of the EHR stimulus funding program.
CHIME’s membership comprises more than 1,400 chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT executives from a variety of provider organizations, including large hospital systems, community hospitals, for-profit hospitals and small or rural facilities. Approximately 11 percent of CHIME’s membership responded to the survey.