Will "Meaningful Use" Bridge the Adoption Gap for Small Physician Practices? Results of a Survey of Hawaii Physicians

Thousands of U.S. physicians have reached the first stage of "meaningful use" and received incentive payments through the HITECH Act. Yet doubts have surfaced about the sustainability of EHR diffusion, as well as about which providers will benefit from program incentives. In this paper we report the findings of a survey conducted among Hawaii physicians, in which we assessed the views of EHR adopters and non-adopters on EHR effects on healthcare practices and on their plans to apply for meaningful use incentives. Our analysis suggests that meaningful use incentives will encourage assimilation among physicians who already have an EHR system but may be less effective to motivate non-adopters to adopt one. We discuss implications of these findings for EHR diffusion in the context of a multi-year action research program to help small, independent physician practices in Hawaii to adopt and assimilate EHRs and consider implications for policy and research.