By Jonathan D. Epstein NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

Western New York’s three health insurers have asked the region’s electronic clinical information exchange to lead an effort at driving more adoption of electronic medical records by area physicians.

Western New York Health Plans, comprised of HealthNow New York, Independent Health Association and Univera Healthcare, hired HEALTHeLINK to implement a program seeking to get 500 more doctors to start using electronic medical records over the next three years.

That’s part of a nationwide effort by the government, insurance industry and providers to increase the use of electronic records to lower costs, streamline operations and reduce medical errors. While use of the electronic records is spreading locally, so far it’s been limited to a few major practices, such as Buffalo Medical Group.

“It’s certainly not at the rate that we wanted, so that’s why this is an exciting opportunity that the health plans are providing to the physicians,” said Daniel E. Porreca, executive director of HEALTHeLINK.

Under the agreement, HEALTHeLINK will help the health plans select the vendor software packages that physicians can choose from, including determining the requirements used to evaluate them. For example, the software must help providers produce better medical outcomes, and also support personal health records and electronic prescribing.

HEALTHeLINK will also guide physicians in choosing which software to use, and then implement so they can qualify for federal dollars.

Congress set aside $19 billion in the $787 billion stimulus package, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to support doctors and hospitals in adopting electronic records. President Obama signed the measure into law on Feb. 17.

“We believe our agreement with HEALTHeLINK, coupled with the recently passed federal stimulus package that will provide physicians reimbursement for adopting electronic medical records, will help ease this technological transition for the physician community,” HealthNow executive vice president Cheryl A. Howe said in a press release.

The new initiative will focus on primary care physicians, Medicaid providers and eventually specialists, including both physicians and mid-level clinicians.

“This initiative by the region’s health plans is another example of the unprecedented collaboration taking place to enhance healthcare for our community,” Porreca said in the release. “We look forward to managing and executing this program on behalf of the health plans and in turn working with the physician community to make the transition to electronic health records as seamlessly as possible.”

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