A new report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says that increasing use of electronic health records and other technologies, as well as other provisions in the healthcare reform act, are already saving the country on healthcare spending, and projects that these cost-cutting measures will continue to be effective in the future.
The report says that using technology to get the best value care, reforming provider payments, improving patient safety, eliminating fraud and reducing excessive payments to insurers will reduce Medicare spending by $120 billion over the course of the next five years.
Technology like electronic health records remains at the heart of many of these initiatives to make the healthcare system more efficient while improving quality. Donald Berwick, administrator of CMS, said that this will contribute to giving the healthcare industry a total facelift.
"This work is laying the groundwork for a larger transformation of Medicare and our healthcare delivery system, from simply paying for the volume of services provided to rewarding the quality of care delivered," he said. "We remain committed to achieving a healthcare system that pursues better care, better health and lower cost through improvement."