By now most optometrists are probably aware that American health care is entering the era of health information technology (HIT). Most have heard that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is moving toward the Bush administration's goal of providing all Americans access to electronic health records (EHRs) by the year 2014 through a Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). Increasingly, optometrists realize that the electronic health records movement is part of a larger effort to increase the quality and reduce the cost of health care through an overall reform of the entire American health care system--a reform that will probably entail concepts such as quality measurement, pay-for-performance, and value-based purchasing. Most important, optometrists increasingly realize that this movement has the potential to profoundly impact the practice of eye and vision care in any number of respects. The problem is: most optometrists have not yet determined exactly what to do about all of this.
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