Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is investing $15 million and partnering with Allscripts (NASDAQ:MDRX) in a program intended to make electronic health records more widely available to physicians in the state.
That investment will help physicians leap over the biggest hurdle for EHR technology adoption: cost. Over the next five years, the money will go into a program that will allow BCBSNC to cover 85 percent of the software and setup costs for 600 physicians in eligible independent practices and 100 percent of the costs for more than 150 physicians in 39 eligible free clinics.
Allscripts will also share in the costs of the program. The financial commitment of the electronic health records technology company was not disclosed.
The initiative is called the North Carolina Program to Advance Technology for Health, or NC PATH. The program will provide training and support for physicians who implement certified EHR technology. Participating physician practices will also receive support toward being recognized as patient-centered medical homes, or PCMH, a model of comprehensive patient care that has been shown to manage costs.
BCBSNC will also work with the North Carolina Health Information Exchange to create a program that will enable providers to connect to the exchange so data can be shared.
