New Minimalist EHR Systems Target Smaller Health Care Providers

Lower prices will be featured by the newest EHR (electronic health record) systems, but will also give less functionality.
The newest electronic health record systems from Epic, which are presently under development, will come with lower price tags and will target smaller healthcare facilities that haven’t conventionally been within the orbit of company. The 2 latest Epic platforms are the Utility EHR, a sufficiently smaller version of the larger Epic ecosystem, and the Sonnet EHR, a more primarily slimmed-down implementation of All Terrain with several fewer modules. 

The offerings of latest product will target physician practices, critical access hospitals, and post-acute care facilities, like rehabilitation hospitals, and will involve data analytics and population health modules. The Sonnet system’s users will have an optional upgrade path to the larger Utility and All Terrain EHR systems. The larger health systems will also be capable to install Sonnet in a section of their systems while utilizing the larger All Terrain’s configuration offering in the remaining network.

Adam Whitlatch, director of research and development at Epic said, “The features that would be eliminated would be things that other major electronic health record vendors already do not have, so you will not actually be missing anything. What that permits us to do is have a shorter execution, decrease maintenance, and also have a lower price point. It is yet the same Epic. It is still the similar completely integrated, inpatient-outpatient system with revenue cycle management, patient portal, and [it's] still deployed on the sufferer being at the heart of the system.”

Many measures were involved by the 2009 American Reinvestment & Recovery Act (ARRA) to motivate and promote the modernization of healthcare infrastructure, one of which was the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act. ARRA set aside almost USD 20 billion in incentives for physicians and hospitals who adopt qualified, certified electronic health records with the capability to exchange data with other sources, which was termed conceptually as meaningful use (MU).