The implementation of an electronic medical record is not an easy task for medical offices. The process can be expensive, sophisticated, and time consuming, especially for smaller medical offices with limited resources. According to a study in Health Affairs it costs about $44,000 per physician to install an electronic health records system, and that is not including ongoing maintenance costs.

President Obama’s federal stimulus will go a long way in helping smaller medical offices actualize electronic medical records. According to a study published in June 2008 by the New England Journal of Medicine, “Only 9% of medical practices with three or fewer physicians now use electronic medical records. By way of comparison, 50% of practices with more than 50 physicians have electronic medical records”. By 2014,  all medical offices in the United States will have shifted to an electronic medical record, and medical billing and coding professionals will be instrumental to the process.

President Obama discusses America’s transfer to electronic medical records as part of his healthcare stimulus plan. Under his proposal, all medical records in America will be electronic by 2014;  as a result,  healthcare technology professionals, such as medical billers and coders, will continue to be in high demand.

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With billions of dollars being invested into healthcare technology and America’s imminent transfer to exclusively electronic medical records, billing and coding professionals will become increasingly vital to healthcare facilities throughout the country. As more healthcare facilities undertake an electronic medical record system, there will be an increase in job openings for medical billing and coding professionals, a claim supported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:

It states that employment levels of medical records and health information technicians are “expected to increase by 18 percent through 2016 – faster than average for all occupations”. The report continues by saying that these professionals “will be needed to enter patient information into computer databases to comply with Federal legislation mandating the use of electronic medical records”.