Dive Brief:
- As of now, mental health professionals do not qualify for any of the $26 billion in federal government incentives for adopting EHRs and meeting Meaningful Use requirements.
- A coalition of mental health professionals and their advocates are lobbying for EHR incentives to be extended to mental health professionals.
- Due to the coalition's efforts, five related bills were introduced last year. None of the bills made it out of committee.
Dive Insight:
Some mental health professionals who are on board with the coalition admit there may be drawbacks, such as information being shared inappropriately. Burt Bertram, a mental health counselor in Orlando, FL, noted that patient records may include personal information about family members or exes, as well as patients. "If a broad base of health professionals had access to mental-health records that include psychotherapy notes, I am concerned about the potential for privacy violations... not only for the patient, but also for the others who are involved in the patient's life," he told The Washington Post.
Critics of the existing program say it doesn't make sense to extend the program to others until the issues with the current EHR systems, which they claim are cumbersome and do not share information efficiently, are fixed.