GAO Report: Majority of Medicare Physicians are using EHRS

Cudos to the ONC! Since the inception of the incentive program, the number of physicians documenting E/M codes with an EHR has doubled. Now let's get Interoperablity and Lab data exchanged hammered down. SV

Use of Electronic Health Record Systems in 2011 Among Medicare Physicians Providing Evaluation and Management Services

They found that 57 percent of Medicare physicians used an EHR system at their primary practice location in 2011. Twenty-two percent of physicians first began using EHR systems to document E/M services in 2011, the year that CMS commenced its incentive program. Additionally, three of every four Medicare physicians with an EHR system used a certified system to document E/M services. Finally, although many EHR systems can assist physicians in assigning codes for E/M services, we found that most Medicare physicians manually assigned E/M codes.

GAO

Report

GAO Report on CMS EHR Incentive Programs


Four major recommendations to verify providers have met program requirements.

Tell us what you think of the report and recommendations. SV

GAO

ONC Publishes Final Version of the Federal HIT Strategic Plan: 2011–2015

Here's some reading for the weekend. SV



The Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011-2015 ("the Plan") is developed under the leadership of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and in close collaboration with other federal partners. The Plan reflects a strategy for coordinating with the public and private sector to realize Congress’ and the Administration's health information technology (health IT) agenda: improving the quality, efficiency, safety and patient-centeredness of health care.

The Plan reflects federal government priorities to help eligible providers become meaningful users of health IT; support implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA); protect individuals’ privacy; empower consumers with access to their health information, and support enhanced learning and innovation. The Plan, which was last published in 2008, has been updated to take into account the rapidly changing landscape of health IT and health IT policy. Since 2008, two major pieces of legislation have established an ambitious agenda and committed significant resources to health IT– the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the PPACA. The HITECH Act addresses security and privacy risks as health IT becomes a more ubiquitous part of health care, and PPACA expands both public health care and private health insurance initiatives.




Federal HIT Strategic Plan: 2011–2015

ONC HEALTH IT Website for consumers and professionals

The site provides links for patients, families, providers and professionals.
A great resource to share. SV


Healthit.gov

Patients and Families

Providers and Professionals

HIMSS ONC HIT Workforce Development Program job board

HIMSS has developed this career resource in support of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), which has funded the Health IT Workforce Development Program. The goal of the program is to train a new workforce of health IT professionals to improve the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.

This section of HIMSS JobMine offers ONC graduates the opportunity to post their resumes and search for jobs that will match their emerging skill set. This service also offers potential employers a database of qualified employees who have graduated from U.S. workforce development and certification programs.

For more information on the HIMSS JobMine ONC Workforce Development Program please click here.

For More Information About:

Community College Consortia, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/communitycollege

University-Based Health IT Training, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/programs/UniversityTraining

Curriculum Development Centers, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/curriculumdevelopment

Competency Examination Program, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/competencyexam
Download Get the Facts About Health IT Workforce Development Program [PDF – 276 KB]

Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

Congratulations Dr Mostashari
A well-deserved promotion!

Dr Blumenthal,thank you for all you've done.SV

Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM serves as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Farzad joined ONC in July 2009 and serves as Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy.

ONC

Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) - Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2011 -2015: Comment period

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is looking for comments on its Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2011 - 2015; the public comment period is open until Friday, April 22, 2011.

ONC Direct Project Collaboration Pilots

Let's hear it for NY'S MedAllies!

Seven pilots in total . sv

MedAllies has been tapped to be part of a national effort to fast track electronic information exchange, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced at the launch of the Direct Project. The Hudson Valley has been selected as one of seven pilot sites to go live in 2011, and MedAllies was specifically mentioned during a Feb. 2 White House press conference announcing the program. Direct Project, a public/private collaborative, is an effort is to find a simple, secure, scalable, standards-based way for participants to send authenticated, encrypted health information via the Internet. That capability supports Meaningful Use requirements. MedAllies anticipates providing a national network capable of supporting interoperability of all physicians using certified EHR systems by the end of 2011. It will demonstrate the technological capabilities at HIMSS next week. "This is an important milestone in our journey to achieve secure health information exchange, and it means that health care providers large and small will have an early option for electronic exchange of information supporting their most basic and frequently needed uses," said Dr. David Blumenthal, ONC chief

ONC Personal Health Records Understanding the Evolving Landscape Webcast

Due to an overwhelming response to the December 3, 2010 PHR Roundtable, pre-registration for in-person attendance has reached its capacity. However, you may still participate in the Roundtable via webcast. To register for the webcast, click here.

ONC PHR Town Round Table Meeting December 2010

Personal Health Records — Understanding the Evolving Landscape
Friday, December 3, 2010
FTC Conference Center, 601 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001

On Friday, December 3, the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will host a free day-long public roundtable on "Personal Health Records — Understanding the Evolving Landscape." The roundtable is designed to inform ONC’s Congressionally mandated report on privacy and security requirements for non-Covered Entities (non-CEs), with a focus on personal health records (PHRs) and related service providers (Section 13424 of the HITECH Act) .

The roundtable will include four panels of prominent researchers, legal scholars, and representatives of consumer, patient, and industry organizations. It will address the current state and evolving nature of PHRs and related technologies (including mobile technologies and social networking), consumer and industry expectations and attitudes toward privacy and security practices, and the pros and cons of different approaches to the requirements that should apply to non-CE PHRs and related technologies.

Mark your calendars now—registration and additional conference information will be available in October at http://healthit.hhs.gov/PHRroundtable

ONC Meaningful Use: 20 common EHR questions answered

Stay tuned for more. SV

ONC

ONC names initial EHR Certification Bodies

Key step in national initiative toward adoption of electronic health records

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Chicago, Ill. and the Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), Austin, Texas, were named today by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as the first technology review bodies that have been authorized to test and certify electronic health record (EHR) systems for compliance with the standards and certification criteria that were issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year.

Announcement of these ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCBs) means that EHR vendors can now begin to have their products certified as meeting criteria to support meaningful use, a key step in the national initiative to encourage adoption and effective use of EHRs by America’s health care providers.

“Less than two months following the issuance of final meaningful use rules, we have approved our initial ONC-ATCB certifiers. EHR vendors can begin immediately to get their products certified.” said David Blumenthal, M.D., national coordinator for Health Information Technology. This is a crucial step because it ensures that certified EHR products will be available to support the achievement of the required meaningful use objectives, that these products will be aligned with one another on key standards, and that doctors and hospitals can invest with confidence in these certified systems.”

Applications for additional ONC-ATCBs are also under review.

To learn more about the ONC-ATCBs named today visit www.cchit.org and www.drummondgroup.com.

For more information about the ONC certification programs visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/certification.

For more information about other HHS Recovery Act Health Information Technology funding and programs, visit http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/index.html#Health.

CCHIT Certified 2011 Ambulatory EHRs

As we await the final Meaningful Use Criteria and ONC certification programs, here is the list of products that have made the leap to achieve CCHIT 2011 Certification. SV

Company	Product	Date Certified	Certification Expires	Certification
ABEL Medical Software Inc.	ABELMed EHR - EMR / PM 11 Pre-Market	11/23/2009	12/31/2014	2011
Compulink	Advantage/EHR 10 Pre-Market	12/16/2009	12/31/2014	2011
CureMD Corporation	CureMD EHR Version 10 Fully Certified	4/13/2010	12/31/2014	2011
EHS, Inc	EHS CareRevolution 5.3 Pre-Market	12/17/2009	12/31/2014	2011
Epic Systems Corporation	EpicCare Ambulatory - Core EMR Spring 2008 Fully Certified	1/8/2010	12/31/2014	2011
Epic Systems Corporation	EpicCare Ambulatory - Core EMR Summer 2009 Fully Certified	1/8/2010	12/31/2014	2011
Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc.	PrimeSuite 2011 Pre-Market	12/8/2009	12/31/2014	2011
KeyMedical Software, Inc.	KeyChart 4.0.0.0 Pre-Market	12/21/2009	12/31/2014	2011
MCS - Medical Communication Systems, Inc.	mMD.net EHR 10.8 eRx Conditional	12/21/2009	12/31/2014	2011
MedEvolve LLC	MedEvolve EHR 4.0 Pre-Market	12/21/2009	12/31/2014	2011
NeoDeck Software	NeoMed EHR 3.0 Pre-Market	4/20/2010	12/31/2014	2011
NexTech Systems Inc.	NexTech Practice 2011 9.5 Fully Certified	1/26/2010	12/31/2014	2011
NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc.	NextGen EHR 5.6 Fully Certified	12/8/2009	12/31/2014	2011
Nortec Software Inc	Nortec EHR 7.0 Fully Certified	5/12/2010	12/31/2014	2011
Pulse Systems	Pulse Patient Relationship Management 4.1.02 Fully Certified	12/11/2009	12/31/2014	2011
StreamlineMD, LLC	Streamline EHR 10.8 eRx Conditional	12/21/2009	12/31/2014	2011

Promoting Use of Health IT: Why Be a Meaningful User: Dr David Blumenthal

I have been blogging for several years on the advantages of HIT.
Here is an excerpt from Dr. David Blumenthal's ONC blog. Dr Blumenthal makes a succinct case for implementing EHRs. SV

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 | Posted by: Dr. David Blumenthal | Category: ONC

As I write, physicians throughout the United States are deciding whether to become meaningful users of electronic health records by 2011 when Medicare and Medicaid start making extra payments to meaningful users. For some the decision may be pretty simple. Almost 200,000 doctors already have adopted EHRs and are using them at a basic or sophisticated level. For these physicians, the journey to meaningful use, and its financial and clinical rewards, may be comparatively short. Many other doctors, however, remain undecided.

I don’t want to minimize the obstacles. When I started using an EHR, I found it challenging. I often longed for a dose of my old prescription pad (confession – I cheated once in a while). I chafed at reconciling medication lists, updating problem lists, scanning through seemingly endless consultant notes. (In the past, many wouldn’t have been available – lost somewhere in the paper world.) It was much easier to use the triplicate x-ray requisition I had used for 30 years than the radiology order entry software required by my EHR. My visits were longer and more complicated. Every time I turned on the computer, it seemed, I had to learn something new.

But I am glad I did it, as are 90 percent of all physicians who adopt an EHR, according to a scientific survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine. My EHR made me a better doctor. I really knew what was going on with my patients. I could answer their questions better and more accurately. I made better decisions. I felt more in control.

Physicians don’t go into medicine because it’s easy. They go through grueling training – spending endless days and nights at the bedside or in the OR. They face tough personal and clinical decisions throughout their professional lives. They constantly have to grow and learn to keep up with the science and practice of medicine. That’s what makes them the professionals they are. That’s what earns their patients’ and colleagues’ respect and admiration. That’s what gets them up in the morning knowing there’s nothing else they would rather be doing.

The EHR is just another of the transitions that physicians are constantly called upon to make in the interest of their patients, their professional competence, and their professional self-esteem. Its advent is inevitable – no more avoidable than the arrival of the stethoscope in the early 1800s or anti-sepsis in the mid 1800s ( both of which some physicians furiously resisted) or the ICU in the mid-1900s. Positive change is often disruptive, but it is irresistible nevertheless. In 10 years, paper records will be the exception. Lagging physicians will be seen as quaint throwbacks, no longer at the top of their game, nostalgic reminders of a bygone age when offices brimmed with manila folders and piles of forms, or when nurses and doctors searched endlessly on hospital rounds for that one essential patient chart that always seemed missing from the nursing station. (How many millions of hours have clinicians spent wandering hospital floors looking for those elusive missing paper records?).

Still, some physicians may be tempted to put off the inevitable, trying to postpone the disruption and expense. Why not wait five or six years? Maybe it will get easier? Less expensive?

For several reasons. First, the sooner physicians start using an EHR, the sooner they and their patients will realize its benefits – the ability to share patient data with colleagues and patients, the ability to retrieve old data effortlessly, the ability to access patient records remotely, so they answer patient questions intelligently from home, or even from a medical meeting.

Second, right now, the federal government is making a once in a lifetime, never to be repeated, offer: it will help physicians pay for the transition with up to $44,000 in extra fees from Medicare, or $63,750 from Medicaid. Physicians can take the leap now with financial and technical help from the government. Or they can do it on their own (or facing a financial penalty) in five years.

Third, anyone who is building a practice, and wanting to recruit young, talented physicians needs to confront the reality that the next generation will expect and demand that their own medical home have a modern information system. I know this from personal experience. With two children in medical school, and a daughter in law who is an intern, I know young physicians will never settle for paper records. Wait, and the cream of the recruiting crop will pass you by.

To me the choice is clear. Physicians’ professional, clinical and financial interests all point in the same direction. Become part of the future. Become a meaningful user of an electronic health record.

–David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. – National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

ONC: Health IT Buzz

ONC:NPRM proposing the establishment of certification programs


On March 2, 2010, an NPRM proposing the establishment of certification programs for purposes of testing and certifying health information technology was posted.

Certification of Health IT will provide assurance to purchasers and other users that an EHR system, or other relevant technology, offers the necessary technological capability, functionality, and security to help them meet the meaningful use criteria established for a given phase. Providers and patients must also be confident that the electronic health IT products and systems they use are secure, can maintain data confidentially, and can work with other systems to share information. Confidence in health IT systems is an important part of advancing health IT system adoption and allowing for the realization of the benefits of improved patient care.

Eligible professionals and eligible hospitals who seek to qualify for incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs are required by statute to use Certified EHR Technology. Once certified, Complete EHRs and EHR Modules would be able to be used by eligible professionals and eligible hospitals, or be combined, to meet the statutory requirement for Certified EHR Technology.

To this end, an NPRM proposing the establishment of certification programs for purposes of testing and certifying health information technology was issued in March 2010 with a request for comments. The NPRM proposes:

* A temporary certification program to assure the availability of Certified EHR Technology prior to the date on which health care providers seeking the incentive payments would begin to report demonstrable meaningful use of Certified EHR Technology.

* A permanent certification program to replace the temporary certification program.

Learn more about the NPRM

* Certification NPRM [PDF - 1.14 MB]
Please note: This PDF file is the version submitted to the Federal Register. The link will be replaced with an official version once it is published in the Federal Register. Persons with disabilities having problems accessing the above pdf file may call 202-690-7151 for assistance.

* Facts-at-a-Glance

* Frequently Asked Questions

Dr David Blumenthal,ONCHIT Coordinator

Congratulations sir!

Primary care physician, EHR user for over a decade, Professor of Medicine at Harvard.

Need I say more. SV

ONCHIT releases strategic HIT plan for 2008 to 2012

EHRs and PHRs are felt to be the key tools help the plan succeed.
While many states have raised significant sums to help this succeed, the Federal government has not done so to the same degree. The Patient Centered Medical Home and other similar initiatives will be need by the Public and Private sector to help accelerate the process. SV


GOALS AND ORGANIZATION OF THE PLAN

The Plan has two goals, Patient-focused Health Care and Population Health, which are defined as follows:

Patient-focused Health Care: Enable the transformation to higher quality, more cost-efficient, patient-focused health care through electronic health information access and use by care providers, and by patients and their designees.

Population Health: Enable the appropriate, authorized, and timely access and use of electronic health information to benefit public health, biomedical research, quality improvement, and emergency preparedness.

Each goal has four objectives and the themes of privacy and security, interoperability, adoption, and collaborative governance recur across the goals, but they apply in very different ways to health care and population health.

HHS.GOV

ONCHIT's report for reducing fraud and improving data accuracy available

Of the recommendations:

22% can be mapped to current CCHIT criteria
45% can be partially mapped
23% are completely new

There's a lot of work ahead.

SV

ONCHIT