EHR Group Recommends Changing Meaningful Use Reporting

Posted by AMS1 at 15 MAY 11:23 am

The Electronic Health Records Association wants to modify the reporting process used by healthcare providers to qualify for stage two of the meaningful use initiative.

Under the the 2009 HITECH Act, physicians are eligible to receive up to $44,000 in incentives from Medicare for meaningful use of electronic health records starting in 2011.

Reporting periods should be broken up for facilities to turn over compliance documents to the federal government, the EHR Association recommends.

Instead of a once-a-year report, providers would file every three or six months, which would give them more time to adapt to new systems and get upgrades working properly, said Mark Segal, co-chair of EHR Association’s public policy leadership work group.

EHA’s decision coincides with a host of other organizations such as the College of Health Information Management Executives which suggested introducing a 90-day reporting period for stage two.

Source: www.blog.executivebiz.com; Gino Troiani; May 8, 2012.

More AMS Clients Receive “Meaningful Use” Stimulus Payment

Posted by AMS at 11 MAY 8:00 am

Peak Woo, MD, FACS in New York, NY have received their first “Meaningful Use” stimulus check! This further demonstrates the possibilities of the AMS system. Congratulations Peak Woo MD PLLC, you are an inspiration to physicians nationwide.

2012 HIMSS Las Vegas Overview

Posted by AMS1 at 8 MAY 8:25 am

Many wonder how information technology can shape the future of health care. There is no better place to find that answer than at the 2012 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Las Vegas. HIMSS is an annual gathering of 38,000 mobile-device-wielding doctors, nurses, IT evangelists, exhibitors, state and federal government officials, all attempting to answer that very question.

It’s not an idle query, either. The U.S. spent nearly $2.6 trillion on health care in 2010. It’s clear that IT has a significant opportunity to help increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the healthcare industry.

EHR growth trajectory

A couple of trends caught my eye at HIMSS, beginning with the increasing number of electronic health record (EHR) solutions available. The health care industry has been trying to move to electronic health records for years, but it can be a complicated and expensive process. Recent changes in federal regulations and incentives are intended to effectively mandate EHRs, turning the status quo upside down.

An EHR provides the necessary foundation to expand and exchange health data across organizational boundaries. For instance, by 2020, I envision being able to seamlessly receive health care services from anybody I choose, just like using my Visa card to shop at stores that cater to my interests.

For IT pros, dramatic growth in EHR systems will bring more intense demands on computing, storage, and imaging resources. These are familiar challenges, but what some may not realize is that EHR systems are not ordinary-the data supports life-critical applications, which means that these systems must be continuously available. If an organization wants to be part of the integrated health data exchange, it could be looking at billions of transactions in a single year.

Also, increased variety in EHR solutions also makes it more difficult to figure out how to accept data from other organizations. Data standards like ICD-10 can help. But there are many types of critical data that remain a challenge, including encounter information. And frankly, that’s the low-hanging fruit. As health care organizations move toward a more preventative approach to health maintenance, the types and volume of health data will expand. After all, wouldn’t you want information like your preventative health alerts and record of healthy activities to travel with you?

Volume, velocity and variety of medical data

Another game changer in healthcare is the personalization of medicine based on the analysis of large cohorts of historical data. A presenter at HIMSS mentioned, studies suggest that it takes an average of 17 years for research evidence to reach clinical practice. Instead, imagine the ability to bring evidence from thousands of cases over decades directly to the point of care in every patient encounter, providing treatment options contextualized to the individual patient.

Big data technologies and their ability to digest structured and unstructured data are key to making this vision a reality. For example, health care organizations have been storing images (e.g. X-ray, MRI, CAT) electronically for quite some time; however, the resolution of the images has been increasing, while more and more organizations are using software for analysis, in addition to storage and retrieval. Continuously analyzing large numbers of high resolution images will require the ability to handle data at the scale of companies like Google or Yahoo. Fortunately, if the number of HIMSS exhibitors is any indication, this message has been received loud and clear by the industry. That’s a good thing, because this is an area where we need to move quickly.

From the perspective of IT, health care has been relatively quiet industry for decades. That has changed. There is immense opportunity to innovate and make a difference. The pieces exist to make health care better; we just need to put those pieces together. The black box is open.

Source: www.computerworld.com; Madhu Nutakki; April 17. 2012.

Another Client Joins the AMS Community

Posted by AMS at 4 MAY 8:00 am

American Medical Software is pleased to announce the addition of Pediatrics and Adolescent from Des Moines, IA to the AMS client community.

At the conclusion of their personalized web presentation, this pediatric office found the amount of customization in the AMS system and our child health, EHR certification for “Meaningful Use” stimulus to be enormous deciding factors when selecting a software provider. Customization in encounter note templates and RHCM were especially appealing to their practice. They felt that AMS provided all of the necessary tools for their pediatric practice.

Welcome to Pediatrics and Adolescent from all of the staff at American Medical Software.

2012: the Year of Meaningful Use

Posted by AMS1 at 2 MAY 7:37 am

In a recent blog post, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services encourages health IT community to make 2012 the year of meaningful use.

Health IT plays a central role in building a 21^st century health care system—where care is safer, better coordinated and patient-centered, where we pay for the right care, not just more care. Increasing the adoption and use of Health IT is crucial, so we’ve set an ambitious goal for 2012: get 100,000 health care providers paid under the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Programs by year’s end. For us to succeed, we need you—the states and our many other health IT partners—to join us in this effort.

The EHR incentive programs, which began in 2011, give payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals as they adopt, implement, upgrade, or demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. “Meaningful use” means providers need to show they’re using certified EHR technology in ways that improve care.

Health IT systems, including EHRs, help providers communicate better with each other about patient care, which reduces medical errors, helps cut down on paperwork, and cuts out needless duplicate screenings and tests. These all lead to better coordinated patient care and lower health care costs.

Thanks to the invaluable work of Health IT coordinators, Medicaid programs, Health IT regional extension centers (RECs), leading hospitals, public health departments, and other stakeholders, CMS and ONC made significant progress in getting providers to adopt and use EHRs during 2011:

• Over $2 billion in Medicare EHR Incentive Program payments were made between May 2011 and the end of February 2012.

• More than $1.8 billion in Medicaid EHR Incentive Program payments were made between January 2011 (when the first set of states launched their programs) and the end of February 2012.

• More than 59,000 eligible professionals and over 2,000 eligible hospitals have been paid by the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.

• More than 120,000 providers, representing approximately 40 percent of primary care providers nationwide, enrolled with the RECs to get program information and help in adopting EHRs.

There’s every reason to expect that together we can increase these numbers greatly this year to reach our target of 100,000 providers. Working together with state Medicaid programs and CMS Regional Offices, many states are partnering with local stakeholder organizations to make sure providers get the help and encouragement to achieve “meaningful use,” and assistance with overcoming any barriers that are blocking their progress. Several states have already set ambitious targets:

• Ohio has set a goal of having 10,000 providers receive EHR incentive payments in 2012, representing nearly 40 percent of all eligible professional and eligible hospitals in the state.

• Washington State aims to have more than 7,000 providers receive EHR Incentive payments this year representing about 40 percent of the state’s eligible professionals and eligible hospitals.

• California has set goals of 10,000 eligible providers receiving Medicaid payments and $500 million in incentive payments coming to the state by June.

• New York State has set an initial target of over 6,000 eligible providers receiving incentive payments in calendar year 2012.

Many of our provider partners have stepped up to the challenge as well.  The National Association of Community Health Centers, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Association of Family Physicians have engaged their memberships in achieving meaningful use in 2012.  The American College of Cardiology has set its own goal of 8,000 cardiologists by 2012 – one third of its membership!

By working together, the health IT community can make 2012 the Year of Meaningful Use.

Source: www.cms.gov; Marilyn Tavenner and Farzad Mostashari; March 23, 2012.