Ask the demonstrator to show and discuss with you:
Contact edgeMED when you are ready to schedule your EHR demonstration.
You need to plan on about 12 months for your staff to become "meaningful users." It is critical that you begin your search today in order to qualify for the full incentives.
Because compliance with "meaningful use" is dependent upon proper use of an EHR by all staff, your practice should prepare now for the change to electronic records so you can begin documenting and collecting required data quickly after the EHR implementation. Here are some ideas to assist you:
edgeMED can provide further assistance to prepare your practice for "meaningful use." Contact us to learn how we can help you identify appropriate opportunities to take advantage of this exciting opportunity.
The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) authorized the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) to offer a financial incentive to providers who are able to demonstrate "meaningful use" of an electronic health record system.
Learn how to get started toward "meaningful use" and collect your stimulus monies below.
Physicians must demonstrate Meaningful Use with an ONC certified EHR to earn HITECH incentives. Meaningful Use is based on achieving compliance with 20 of 25 metrics related to EHR use. In addition to the 20 Meaningful Use objectives, participating physicians and other healthcare professionals need to submit six clinical quality measurement reports on their treatment of patients, selected from a set of 44 potential measures. Failure to comply with these regulations will result in penalties to begin in 2015. For information on these measures, please visit the edgeMED Stimuls Overview page and reference the informative PDF files.
You may also read more details about meaningful use on the HHS Health Information Technology website.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is giving healthcare providers the ability to track online the status of the incentive payments they are due for meaningful use adoption of electronic health records, similar to the "Where's My Refund" feature on the Internal Revenue Service' income tax site. Once CMS has notified providers they have met meaningful use requirements they will be able to determine the status of their payments at the same site they registered for the incentives and attested to meeting the meaningful use criteria. Providers will be able to click on the status tab and see what the current status of their payment is, for example, payment pending, payment ready, check issued, payment in progress or payment successful.
CMS will open registration for the incentive program beginning Jan. 3, 2011. Providers who are Medicare participants must be registered in the agency's Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS), which is available online through the CMS Web site. PECOS manages, tracks and validates the enrollment of providers and suppliers in the Medicare program.
To qualify for incentives, providers must verify they have demonstrated meaningful use of certified electronic health records for 90 days. When they are ready to do that, CMS will guide them to an attestation module through which they will answer questions and perform some calculations. The earliest that CMS could make payments is April 2011.
As part of eligibility for the maximum meaningful use incentives, physicians and practices must provide a threshold of Medicare services. They must bill Medicare for at least $24,000 in claims for 2011 before they can receive the maximum incentive payment of $18,000, even if they have already attested to complying with meaningful use requirements and been approved. Most Medicare providers are expected to reach that level at some point during the year. When providers reach that threshold, the payment file contractor will generate electronic payment of the incentives through the same bank account that they receive payment for Medicare claims.
It is essential to fully understand the differences among EHR systems. Features and functionality that are important to have in selecting an EHR include:
