Category: 
February 20, 2009A lot of physicians still have questions about the incentive payments for doctors outlined in the recent Health IT funding package. The funding provides for incentive funding for physicians adopting certified electronic medical records – upwards of $40,000 per physician starting in 2011.
This post gives a good summary of how the funds are to be distributed, as well as some more information about how the bill defines certified electronic medical records:
“It looks as if there will be a new set of certification criteria for “qualified electronic health records” that meet the new features defined in the bill. Given the dollars involved, providers will want to adopt products that meet the bonus criteria. To do so, they must understand what is a “qualified record” and what it means to “effectively use” one. The legislation defines a qualified electronic record as one that:
- Includes patient demographic and clinical health information, such as medical history and problem lists
- Has the capacity to provide clinical decision support; allow physician order entry; capture and query information relevant to health care quality; and exchange and integrate electronic health information with other sources.
- The legislation leaves some of the ability to define meaningful use of the certified EHR up to the HHS regulators, but it requires the participating providers to submit clinical quality measures and be “connected for the electronic exchange of health information to improve the quality of health care, such as promoting care coordination.”
“The bonuses for adoption and use break down to about $15,000 the first year and declining each year to about $2,000 in the fifth year, with a maximum payout of more than $40,000.”
Read the full post: “Stimulus bill offers docs big incentives for technology, but demands effective use“.
Physicians who still have questions can contact the EMR Hotline at Practice Partner to learn how they can qualify for a maximum of up to $64,000 in reimbursement under the Medicare and Medicaid portions of the Stimulus Plan. Call ‘Achieve HIT’ at 1-877-EHR-1MCK.
Stumble it!
1 person has left a comment
The most important part of HIPAA is making sure your data is securely protected offsite using a service like Remote Data Backups.
If you lose your sensitive data or have a breach, you face serious penalties (up to $250k, you can even lose your license), so make sure you protect it with a reliable data backup solution.