EMR Market Over $20 Billion: Report

New York, April 18, 2013 -- Driven by hospital IT upgrades and the lure of government incentives, the market for electronic medical records (EMR) exceeded 20 billion dollars in 2012, according to Kalorama Information. The healthcare market research publisher says vendors should see robust sales this year and next as vendors try to avoid U.S. government penalties for paper record use. The finding was made in its sixth annual report on electronic medical records (EMR) market, EMR 2013: The Market for Electronic Medical Records.

Kalorama Information's report said the EMR market reached 20.7Billion in 2012, a 15% increase from the 17.9 billion in 2011. Kalorama includes revenues for EMR/EHR systems, CPOE systems, and directly related services such as installation, training, servicing, and consulting which are key profit areas for companies but does not include hardware or other IT systems unrelated to EMR such as billing systems.

"Last year was particularly good for the EMR market," said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information. "Companies improved sales to physicians, while hospitals added upgraded systems to conform with meaningful use requirements."

As part of the ARRA stimulus legislation in 2009, the federal government set aside nearly $20 billion in incentives for hospitals and physician practices adopting electronic medical records. More than $12.3 billion in meaningful use incentive payments have been distributed to 219,000 eligible hospitals and healthcare professionals as of March 1, 2013. The incentives are driving physician adoption, according to the report. A recent CMS survey shows that over 70% of physicians have used EMR, representing improvement over the 26% that had used EMR in 2006. Hospitals increased EMR usage as well: In 2012, approximately 77% of U.S. hospitals had achieved Stage 3 (a measure of basic use of EMR) or higher, compared to 71% in 2011.

Kalorama assumes the trend of adoption will continue to improve, hospital EMR adoption will supersede doctors and current EMR stage 3 will move up in stages. It also assumes that current EMR owners will upgrade and train on systems, and that the threat of penalties for paper record use will force doctors and hospitals to make upgrade decisions Data storage remedies and security breaches are a high priority for customers. In addition, the proliferation of smart phones, tablets and other wireless technology pose security issues.

"There are challenges for the industry to turn expected short-term revenue growth into a long-term market," Carlson said. "Vendors need to work on interoperability and usability if they want to succeed in the post-incentive world." Kalorama's detailed market research study on electronic medical records and the vendors who sell them, EMR 2013, has more information. The report describes vendor offerings and prices, contains breakouts of the hospital and physician EMR market, a review of adoption statistics and company profiles. The report can be found at: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/EMR-7503532/

About Kalorama Information -- Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as a full range of custom research services. We routinely assist the media with healthcare topics. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and our blog.

Contact:
Bruce Carlson, publisher
KaloramaInformation.com
[email protected]