Mental health physicians, clinics and psychiatric hospitals were not included in the $26 billion Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Program, part of the 2009 HITECH Act. A coalition of mental health care professionals and advocates are pushing for Congress to provide them with the same benefits other medical professionals have under the program, according to the Washington Post.
Five bills were introduced in 2014 to offer funds to reimburse mental health physicians and practices for purchasing EHR system, but none made it out of committee. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) intends to introduce a bill to improve mental health services and extend incentives to the providers, according to the report.
However, they may face opposition. A coalition of 37 medical societies led by the American Medical Association urged federal regulators to wait to expand the program until the currently cumbersome, inefficient EHR systems have been improved. Others have suggested combining medical records and mental health records, which could make the systems more expensive. Currently, experts estimate that the program would need to be expanded by approximately $1 billion to cover mental health professionals, according to the report.
