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1000 Healthcare Providers Sign up for EHR and Meaningful Use

November 28th, 2011

1,000 Healthcare Providers at Regional Extension Centers Sign up for EHR and Meaningful Use

Several Regional Extension Centers have closely approached, met or exceeded the goal of signing up 1000 healthcare providers. These include The HealthInsight Regional Extension Center for Health Information Technology (REC) in Utah. They achieved this in May 2011. Also in May,  the Mississippi Regional Extension (REC) met its initial goal of enrolling 1,000 primary health care providers for assistance as they move toward adopting an electronic health record.

In June, Maryland had subscribed all of its slots under the federal Health Information Technology Regional Centers Program, bringing federally-subsidized direct assistance support to 1,000 primary care physicians who have begun the process of implementing and using electronic medical records, or EHRs.

In August, the Delaware Regional Extension Center announced they met their 1,000 provider goal.

More than 1,000 Oklahoma health care providers are now enrolled with OFMQHIT as part of the national effort to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records, announced Gregg Koehn, CEO of the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ). OFMQHIT is the Oklahoma HIT Regional Extension Center, headquartered at OFMQ.

Just months after L.A. Care Health Plan announced the formation of HITEC-LA, an independent, nonprofit REC made possible by a grant under the federal HITECH Act of 2010, the REC has met its first milestone ahead of schedule and enrolled more than 1,000 provider members across Los Angeles County.

REACH is a nonprofit federal Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center. They have registered 1,000 providers in clinics, small hospitals, and other settings in Minnesota and North Dakota implement and effectively use electronic health records. REACH is a program of Key Health Alliance, a partnership of Stratis Health, National Rural Health Resource Center, and The College of St. Scholastica, which collaborates with North Dakota Health Care Review and the University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences. REACH serves Minnesota and North Dakota.

The Tri-State Regional Extension Center (REC) announced recently that it has met its enrollment goal of 1,739 primary care providers in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

Kansas Regional Extension Center (REC) said the official sign-up count is currently 1,059, however a pending group contract would put that number at 1,199 once signed.

Kansas Regional Extension Center "Meaningful Use"

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Posted in Health Information Technology, Meaningful Use, Regional Extension Centers

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Regional Extension Centers Update

November 9th, 2011

Regional Extension Centers Update

Virginia HIT (VHIT) is now supporting more than 1,800 providers who are working to reach meaningful use of their electronic health record (EHR), placing them over 80 percent of the way to their recruitment goal.

The Northwest Ohio Regional Extension Center (NWOREC) has been designated by the Ohio Health Information Partnership to offer Electronic Health Record (EHR)-related services to physicians in the 14 counties of Northwest Ohio.

According to HHS, over 80,000 providers, as of July 31 of this year, had registered to participate in the meaningful use program, which is a great start. Something like close to 90,000 providers have actually registered to work with the regional extension centers for health IT.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), through the New Jersey Health Information Technology Extension Center (NJIT/NJ-HITEC) is one of the 62 Regional Extension Centers (REC) to receive funding from the federal government in April 2010. They issued an RFP with an deadline of October 10, 2011.

HITEC-LA, the Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (REC) for the nation’s most populous county, announced that it selected NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc. (NextGen Healthcare) as one of its preferred vendors to offer certified electronic health records (EHRs) to L.A. County’s solo, small group, and clinic health care providers.

The University of Central Florida College of Medicine is launching UCF Pegasus Health, the college’s new faculty clinical practice. The medical center will also house the college’s Regional Extension Center health information technology initiative, which assists local primary care physicians in adopting electronic health records.

HealthInsight, a community-based non-profit organization, announced it will launch a new website, “UtahHealthScape”, a comprehensive source of objective quality information for health consumers. The site, www.utahhealthscape.org, helps patients use data – rather than just a neighbor’s or coworker’s advice — to select a health care provider or health plan.

As of October 5, 2011, the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care, Inc, Regional Extension Center (KFMC REC) was working with a total of 1,002 physicians and practitioners; Priority Primary Care Providers (PPCPs) and Specialists. Click anywhere within one of the six regions on the map to see a list of practices in that region who are working toward Meaningful Use with the help of the Regional Extension Center.

The Montana Primary Care Association announced that they have entered into a partnership with Montana’s Regional Extension Center, Health Technology Services, to assist the community health centers in implementing, upgrading and utilizing electronic health records (EHR) to reach Meaningful Use. Try their EHR Incentive Program Checklists. It helps to Compare “Notable Differences between the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.”

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Posted in EHR Incentive Program, EHRs, Meaningful Use, Regional Extension Centers

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HIT Policy Committee (HITPC) Request for Comment

February 17th, 2011

Reminder: HIT Policy Committee (HITPC) Request for Comment Regarding Meaningful Use Stage 2

The request for comment period for the HITPC’s potential stage 2 meaningful use objectives will end on Friday, February 25. Please submit your comments. Your comments will inform the HITPC’s work in determining a longer-term vision for meaningful use of electronic health records.

Please see the HITPC’s Request for Comment posted on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s FACA blog for more details.

The Health Information Technology Policy Committee (HITPC) is a federal advisory committee that advises the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on federal HIT policy issues, including how to define the meaningful use (MU) of electronic health records (EHRs) for the purposes of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs. The HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 specifically mandated that incentives should be given to Medicare and Medicaid providers not for EHR adoption but for meaningful use of EHRs. In July of 2010, HHS released that program’s final rule, thus defining stage 1 MU and strongly signaling that the bar for what constitutes MU would be raised in subsequent stages in order to improve advanced care processes and health outcomes.
The HITPC held six public hearings in 2010 including testimony from several dozen stakeholders and received additional dozens of public comments via its blog. All of this input helped to inform its many hours of public deliberations regarding the future vision of MU (e.g., stage 3) as well as the interim stepping stone of stage 2 MU that will set expectations for 2013 and 2014.
The HITPC has developed a preliminary set of recommendations specifically designed to solicit additional public feedback. The goal of sending out this request for comment (RFC) early is threefold.
1. Provide some signal to the industry of potential new EHR functionalities that the HITPC may recommend to help the industry get a head start on developing new functionalities.
2. Extend the public discussion of future stage MU definitions through a more formal public comment process well in advance of its formal final stage 2 recommendations to be issued in the summer of 2011.
3. Request input on specific questions.
Following analysis of the comments received through the approximately 45-day public comment period, the HITPC intends to revisit these recommendations in its public meetings in the spring of 2011. At that time, the HITPC will be able to review public comments in the context of the early feedback from providers on experience with stage 1 MU. That input will come through many vehicles: the Medicare program, the Medicaid program (both federal and state constituencies), the HIT regional extension program, and other sources. Note, this RFC solely represents the preliminary thinking of the HITPC and its Meaningful Use.

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ONC Issues Final Rule for Permanent Certification Program for Health Information Technology

January 4th, 2011

ONC Issued Final Rule to Establish the Permanent Certification Program for Health Information Technology

Steps to create permanent health IT certification program underway

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today issued a final rule to establish the permanent certification program for health information technology.  The permanent certification program provides new features that will enhance the certification of health information technology, including increasing the comprehensiveness, transparency, reliability, and efficiency of the current processes used for the certification of electronic health record (EHR) technology.  Meaningful use of “Certified EHR Technology” is a core requirement for eligible health care providers who seek to qualify to receive incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs as authorized by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

“This final rule completes the two-phased approach ONC began with the proposed rule issued in Spring 2010 and includes several important improvements to our certification processes,” said David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P., national coordinator for health information technology.  “Our goal is to make the transition to the permanent certification program as seamless as possible.” 

The temporary certification program, established through a final rule published on June 24, 2010, will continue to be in effect until it sunsets on December 31, 2011, or at a later date when the processes necessary for the permanent certification program to operate are completed.  ONC expects to stand-up the programmatic activities necessary to implement the permanent certification program throughout 2011. 

Features of the permanent certification program include:
Organizations must first be accredited in order to test and/or certify health information technology;
Certification bodies authorized by the National Coordinator (ONC-Authorized Certification Bodies or ONC-ACBs) are required to conduct post-certification surveillance; and
ONC-ACBs are permitted to perform “gap certification.” 

As proposed, ONC will request that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through its National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) develop a laboratory accreditation program for organizations to be accredited to test health information technology for purposes of the permanent certification program.  Based on NIST’s technical expertise and the strong relationship formed between ONC and NIST during the successful implementation of the temporary certification program, the use of NVLAP is expected to enhance testing under the permanent certification program and its objectivity overall.     

This final rule is issued under the authority provided to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in section 3001(c)(5) of the Public Health Service Act, as added by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.
For more information about the permanent certification program and the final rule, please visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/certification.

For more information about the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technol, please visit http://healthit.hhs.gov.

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Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record EHR Incentive Programs

August 4th, 2010

CMS EHR Incentive Programs Website Updated for Medicare and Medicaid

Get up-to-date and accurate information about the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs from CMS at http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentiveprograms/. Visit the website to get specifics about the program and download our new tip sheets.

Tip Sheets for Eligible Professionals:

  • Medicare EHR Incentive Payments for Eligible Professionals

This tip sheet describes which types of individual practitioners can participate in the Medicare EHR incentive program. It provides user friendly information about incentive payment amounts and describes how they are calculated for fee for service and Medicare advantage providers. It also describes payment adjustments beginning in 2015 for EPs who are not meaningful users of certified EHR technology.

  • Medicare EHR Incentive Program, PQRI and E-Prescribing Comparison

Learn what opportunities are available to Medicare Eligible Professionals to receive incentive payments for participating in important Medicare initiatives. This fact sheet provides information on eligibility, timeframes, and maximum payments for each program.

Now available on the CMS EHR Incentive Programs website http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms.  Select the Medicare Eligible Professional tab on the left, and then scroll to “Downloads.”

Tip Sheets for Hospitals:

  • EHR Incentive Program for Medicare Hospitals

Learn which Medicare hospitals are eligible for incentive payments. (See the separate tip sheet for Critical Access Hospitals below.) This sheet provides user friendly information about the factors which impact incentive payment amounts and provides sample payment calculations.

  • EHR Incentive Program for Critical Access Hospitals

How are Medicare incentive payments calculated for CAHs? When can they be earned? Learn more in this informative discussion of the calculation of incentive payments. Sample calculations are provided. This sheet also provides information on how reimbursement will be reduced for CAHs which have not demonstrated meaningful use of certified EHR technology by 2015.

Now available on the CMS EHR Incentive Programs website http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms.  Select the Hospitals tab on the left, and then scroll to “Downloads.”

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