Speaker Name(s): William A. Yasnoff, MD, PhD, FACMI
Description: Communities building health information infrastructures (HIIs) face at least three key problems: 1) providing financial incentives to office-based physicians for use of electronic health record (EHR) systems; 2) assuring overall financial sustainability; and 3) giving patients control over their health care information. To address these issues, Louisville, Kentucky is using a recently developed business and operational model for HIIs known as an eHealthTrust™. Consisting of a central community repository for medical record information paid for and controlled by patients, the estimated annual per-patient fee of $60/year covers both operations and EHR incentives. Payments of $3 per patient encounter goes to participating physicians who submit a standard electronic record, averaging $10,000 to $20,000 of revenue per physician. The details of the eHealthTrust model and its current status will be presented. Learning objectives: 1. Recognize the key requirements that HIIs must meet to be successful. 2. Understand the problems faced by developing HIIs. 3. Know the critical determinants of financial sustainability for HIIs.