AMS Clients Now Receiving First Stimulus Payments!

Posted by AMS at 30 SEP 8:00 am

Many AMS clients who attested for “Meaningful Use” earlier this year are now receiving their first ARRA stimulus checks! A recent survey of AMS clients showed many more practices in the process of attesting while others plan to attest in 2012. All of these clients are taking advantage of their fully integrated, completely certified AMS software by implementing and utilizing it to its fullest potential. These clients are demonstrating how successful any practice can be with AMS as their software provider. It is not too late for practices without software to learn more about “Meaningful Use” and how they too can benefit not only from the ARRA stimulus reimbursements but also a more efficient, paperless medical office. Contact American Medical Software directly at 800-423-8836.

Meaningful Use Deadline Nears for Eligible Professionals

Posted by AMS at 27 SEP 8:00 am

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reminds physicians and other non-hospital providers that Oct. 3 is the last day for eligible professionals to begin their 90-day reporting period for the first year of Stage 1 electronic health records meaningful use incentive payments.

The reporting year for eligible professionals ends on Dec. 31, and Feb. 29, 2012, is the last day for eligible professionals to register and attest to receive an incentive payment for calendar year 2011. CMS encourages early registration and not waiting until ready to attest in case problems arise during the registration process.

The hospital meaningful use program runs on the federal fiscal year and Nov. 30 is the last data to register and attest to receive an incentive payment for FY 2011.

More information is available at https://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms.

Source: www.healthdatamanagement.com

Another Client Joins the AMS Community

Posted by AMS at 23 SEP 8:00 am

American Medical Software is pleased to announce the addition of Your Private MD LLC from Pickerington, OH to the AMS client community.

The physician and staff at Your Private MD were looking for a medical office solution and narrowed their search down to the fully integrated AMS system and a competing ASP based system. They were instantly pleased to know that the AMS system can be installed on a local server or on a hosted server. After going through a live web demonstration of the entire AMS system, the practice chose AMS as their medical office software solution. They were particularly impressed with the flow and integration of each AMS system as well as the robust options for customization within them. The sample encounter note templates shown to the physician demonstrated the flexibility and the unlimited amount of customization available for them or any type of practice. Having the option of a low monthly payment with AMS’s lease-to-purchase plan as compared to ASP based systems that are never actually owned by the user made AMS the best choice for their new practice.

Welcome to Your Private MD LLC from all of the staff at American Medical Software.

Dr. Carmen Espirtu • Pain and Rehab Specialist

Posted by AMS at 23 SEP 7:54 am

Dr. Carmen Espiritu talking about American Medical Practice Management Software capabilities.

Report: 9 Out of 10 Radiologists Could Qualify for Meaningful Use Incentives

Posted by AMS at 20 SEP 8:15 am

Knowledge is power, and it can also provide a significant return for the radiology specialty–to the tune of $1.5 billion, according to a September article published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Many radiologists erroneously think they will not qualify for “meaningful use” incentives. While radiology as a specialty provides specific challenges to MU criteria adoption, a recent article prompts radiologists to pay better attention to equip themselves with the knowledge to cash in on new incentives.

WHO QUALIFIES?
Any radiologist who receives payments of at least $24,000 per year is eligible for up to $44,000 in bonus payments per physician over the next 5 years. To qualify, radiologists must provide 10 percent of services in an outpatient setting which includes urgent care facilities, independent clinics and offices as defined by Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services place of service codes.

“Given that even most hospital-based radiologists provide care for urgent care centers and clinics or offices, the American College of Radiology estimates that perhaps 90 percent of radiologists will be eligible for the CMS incentives,” write the authors, led by Dr. Murray A. Reicher, co-founder of DR Systems Inc. in San Diego. Receiving these payments depends on the radiologists’ ability “to rapidly adopt essential technology and practice workflows.”

The article also states that one of the most obvious hurdles to adoption is a lack of any certified ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) systems or set of ambulatory modules that meet current meaningful use criteria. Still, the biggest mistake a radiologist can make is to do nothing, says Dr. Reicher.

Radiologists can take steps to become involved in hospital selection of technologies and to fully understand the unique specialty-specific issues that stand in the way of their payments.

“It’s a challenge and an opportunity.” says Dr. Reicher. “I’m looking forward to increasing my clinical relevance, improving the clinical information I have available when I read an exam, and having a closer connection to my patients. All that and a $44k bonus…It’s not all bad.”

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
Most radiologists are exempt from the e-prescribing clinical objective, since they write under 100 prescriptions a year. However, they still need to document that they are using a complete certified EHR. Thus, the hospital, office or imaging center must own e-prescribing technology, even though the radiologist is exempt from using it. “As illogical as this may seem, it is the law,” the article states.

This also means that it is not enough to simply work in a hospital that has a completely certified EHR. Thus, a radiologist must collaborate with the hospital so that the radiologist can document the meeting of meaningful use criteria in radiology workflow.

In addition, at least 50 percent of radiologists’ patient encounters during the reporting period must be equipped with complete certified EHRs. This may be a specific challenge for radiologists who work at hospitals and separate outpatient facilities. If a radiologist’s imaging center doesn’t have an electronic medical record, at least 50 percent of those outpatient encounters must occur at the hospital to qualify. And because the bonus is paid per physician, a busy radiologist group of 10 radiologists will need to divvy up those patient encounters to ensure all physicians qualify, the article states.

“This might make for a tricky physician scheduling challenge for a group practice aiming to have all physicians qualify because each of the physicians would need to have more than 50 percent of their patient encounters (not aggregate group billings) at the site equipped with the complete certified ambulatory EHR,” the article notes.

DEADLINES
Radiologists, even those who do not use a complete certified ambulatory EHR, can register here. The last day to begin using certified technology to qualify for full payments is Oct. 1, 2012. After that date, incentives drop and also penalties will take effect in 2015.

“Given the likelihood that hospitals may be biased toward satisfying the inpatient criteria first, it would seem wise for radiologists to become active participants in their hospital information systems planning processes,” the article contends.

Source: www.dotmed.com