GE Launches EMR Financing Program

As part of its healthymagination initiative to increase access to technology and reduce cost, GE recently announced the launch of a new program, Stimulus Simplicity, which offers doctors and hospitals an easier path to electronic medical record (EMR) adoption. This program is a joint offering of GE Healthcare and GE Capital and contains two core elements—a commitment to ensure that the EMRs are certified (a precursor to federal stimulus reimbursement eligibility) and an interest-free loan with deferred payments. The program addresses some of the biggest barriers to EMR adoption faced by healthcare providers, uncertainty around future standards and interim funding to cover the capital investment.

GE’s Stimulus Simplicity program helps physician offices and hospitals that invest in GE’s EMR products, GE Centricity EMR and Centricity Enterprise solutions, maximize the potential benefits of the increased focus on EMRs under President Obama’s stimulus funding bill. The financing enables healthcare providers to accelerate adoption of EMRs and further their efforts to reduce cost and improve patient care through greater access to valuable information at the point of care. GE’s financial services business, GE Capital, will provide the financing with GE Healthcare providing its EMR product certification warranty.

Under the HITECH Act of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, federal stimulus funds won’t become available for EMRs until 2011, and the federal government has yet to set specific guidelines for determining what constitutes a “qualified” system. To overcome these barriers to immediate adoption of EMRs, GE is making a commitment to support its customers’ ability to meet “meaningful use” standards by offering its HITECH Warranty for Centricity EMR and Centricity Enterprise solutions and zero-interest funding with deferred payments to qualified buyers, so they can have immediate access to this technology without the up-front capital costs. GE Capital expects to make about $100 million available for the program.

For more information, visit www.gehealthcare.com/usen/hit/hitech_act.html.

Source: GE Healthcare