Bridges to Excellence Launches Medical Home Program

Get electronic, do it right and earn up to $125.00 per patient per year! SV

Washington – Today Bridges to Excellence (BTE), the nation’s largest effort to reward physicians for delivery of high quality care, announced its support of the medical home approach to providing health care by launching the BTE Medical Home Program. The initiative will reward physicians that demonstrate they have adopted really good systems and processes of care, and are using those systems to deliver positive results in the management of their patients – in particular patients with chronic conditions.

BTE

Taking HIT to the next level

The Medical Society of the State of New York, in an effort to enhance the knowledge of physicians concerning the importance of adopting interoperative Health Information Technology (HIT), has received continued grant funding from the New York State Department of Health to educate physicians on the means and importance of integrating electronic medical records and electronic prescribing technologies into their practices.

Participants who attend the two-hour CME presentation will be exposed to information and tools to assist their practice with the EHR planning, selection and implementation processes.


Kings CMS

1/31/08

6:30pm

Lai Yuen

Brooklyn

Linda Smith

718-745-5800


Bronx ACP/Bronx CMS
2/20/08

6:00pm

Mario's

Bronx

Diane Miller

718-548-4401

Queens CMS
2/26/08

6:00pm

Sheraton LaGuardia

Queens

Janine Regosin

718-268-7300

Nassau Academy of Med
3/19/08

6:00pm

Chateau Brian

Carle Palce

Mark Cappola

516-832-2300


Orleans CMS

TBA

TBA

Dr. Marie Crea

716-285-5780


Westchester CMS

3/26/08

6:00pm


Pleasantville CC

Pleasantville

Denise ONeill

914-967-9100

Suffolk CMS

5/7/08

6:00pm

Holiday Inn

Ronkonkoma

Stu Friedman

631-851-1400


New York CMS
5/13/08

6:00pm


PekingPark

New York

Natalie Ruoff

212-684-4670



Queens Family Physicians
5/20/08

6:00pm


Akbar Rest

Garden City

Mark Dumbleton

718-322-2903

MSSNY

CCHIT INPATIENT EHR: UPDATED LIST

company (product version) date certified

Cerner Corporation
(Cerner Millennium PowerChart 2007) 1/22/2008

Computer Programs and Systems, Inc. (CPSI)
(CPSI System, 15) 11/5/2007

Eclipsys Corporation
(Sunrise Acute Care, 4.5 SP4) 11/5/2007

Epic Systems Corporation
(EpicCare Inpatient, Spring 2007) 11/5/2007

Healthcare Management Systems, Inc.
(Healthcare Management Systems, 7.0) 11/5/2007

MEDITECH
(Advanced Clinical Systems, MAGIC 5.6) 1/22/2008

Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc.
(Soarian Clinicals 2.0C5 with Siemens Pharmacy and Med Administration Check 24.0) 11/5/2007

Pre-market conditionally certified products*
company (product version) date certified

Prognosis Health Information Systems
(ChartAccess 1.0) 11/5/2007

Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc.
(INVISION Clinicals Version 27.0 with Siemens Pharmacy and Med Administration Check (MAK), Version 24.0) 1/22/2008

CCHIT

MedPlus to Implement Clinical Portal and Information Exchange for the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange (BHIX)

MADISON, N.J., Jan. 11, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- MedPlus, the healthcare information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), today announced that it has been awarded a contract to implement a clinical portal and information exchange for the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange (BHIX). Organized by Maimonides Medical Center and other healthcare organizations in New York, the BHIX is a not-for-profit corporation that will offer health information exchange services in Brooklyn, New York State's most populous borough. The MedPlus system will enable physicians and other healthcare workers to securely collect, manage and share patient information in real time from Internet-enabled locations across the BHIX's eleven partner organizations.
"Technology can optimize patient care, minimize the risk of medical errors, and reduce administrative and other operating costs," said Pamela Brier, president of Maimonides Medical Center and chairperson of the board of directors of the BHIX. "Our goal for the BHIX is to provide exceptional patient care and service through the strategic deployment of technology, and we believe MedPlus is the right vendor to help us achieve this goal."

Medplus

RelayHealth expands partnerships with CIGNA and Aetna


CIGNA HealthCare to Offer National “Virtual House Calls” Program Through RelayHealth

Aetna Expands Availability of RelayHealth’s Secure Online Messaging and Consultations Nationwide, Includes Specialists

Aetna coverage for RelayHealth online visits will be available to most fully insured plan members. Self-insured plan sponsors may choose to participate.

CIGNA

Aetna

CMS (Medicare) Home Health Pay for Performance demonstration


The Home Health Pay for Performance demonstration will offer incentive payments to a sample of Medicare home health agencies for maintaining high levels of quality care, or making significant improvement s in the quality of their services. HHP4P will be conducted in Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, California between Jan. 08 and Dec. 09.

An incentive pool will be generated out of savings accrued from the reduction in the use of more costly Medicare services. The pool will be shared with home health agencies that produced the highest level of patient care or produced the greatest improvement in patient care as measured by seven OASIS measures.

• Incidence of Acute Care Hospitalization
• Incidence of Any Emergent Care
• Improvement in Bathing
• Improvement in Ambulation / Locomotion
• Improvement in Transferring
• Improvement in Management of Oral Medications
• Improvement in Status of Surgical Wounds

Seventy-five percent of the incentive pool will be shared with those agencies in the top 20% of the highest level of patient care. Twenty-five percent of the incentive pool will be shared with the top 20% of those making the biggest improvements in patient care. If there are no savings, there will be no incentives.

CMS

Maine Governor John E. Baldacci Congratulates New England Telehealth Consortium on Health Care Grant

As broadband technology evolves, the ability to network rural area on a limited budget has significantly improved. SV

BANGOR - Governor John E. Baldacci congratulated the New England Telehealth Consortium today for receiving a $24.6 million Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rural health care grant. The grant is the largest award issued by the FCC under the Rural Health Care Pilot Program. The Consortium’s winning proposal calls for the connection of rural and urban nonprofit health care centers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

ProInfoNet of Bangor developed the coalition that sought the award. The New England Telehealth Consortium consists of 31 members, representing 555 health care sites in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, including hospitals, the University of Maine, the University of New England, The Jackson Laboratory and others. The consortium will link regional health care providers with urban public practices, research institutions, academic institutions and medical specialists to provide greater efficiency in the sharing of information relevant to health care applications. Once the network is complete, the opportunity exists to connect with a similar network in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Maine

Missouri Gov. Blunt Recommends $15 Million to Enhance Health Care Technology

Gov. Blunt created the Healthcare Technology Fund in 2006, and it has been supported by the General Assembly as the preferred means to secure the latest technology for the Mo HealthNet program, as well as mental health and public health initiatives. The governor has secured $25 million to create the Healthcare Technology Fund to build a foundation for the state to enhance technology in its health care programs.

Missouri Governor

MSSNY Health Information Technology (HIT) CME Seminar Series 2008


Health Info Tech Seminars
Major Health Info Technology Programs for NYS

Physicians and office managers in New York State are urged to register early for the Health Information Technology programs being scheduled for the New York medical community over the coming months. Here are the coming date and locations:


* Albany Area… Saturday, January 19th at the Desmond Hotel at the Albany Airport. Click here to Register

* Lower Hudson Area… Wednesday, February 13th at the Marriott in Tarrytown. Click Here to Register

* New York City Area… Friday, April 4th at Park Central Hotel at Seventh Avenue and 56th Street Click Here to Register

* Central NY Area…… Wednesday, April 30 at the Double Tree at Carrier Circle. Click Here to Register

* Western NY Area…… Friday, May 2 at the RITConferenceCenter in Rochester. Click Here to Register

* Long Island Area… Friday, May 9th at the Huntington Hilton on Route 110. Click Here to Register


These day-long events are loaded with information to help the physician and office manager quickly analyze their electronic health record and practice management systems needs to make informed decisions on their next steps. In addition to briefings by physicians who have already made the change to electronic systems, attendees will also have the opportunity to meet information technology vendors, see system demonstrations and discuss their unique office needs.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Session II: How to Conduct the Critical Office Assessment and Workflow Review (.75 CME Category 1 Credit)

– Transition to Paperless Office and the Importance of Operational Redesign: define a ‘paperless office’; identify possible problems and solutions to complete the transformation to a paperless office; describe the benefits of a paperless office; how to develop a migration plan from paper to paperless office; describe the benefits of operational redesign; describe workflow problems and various approaches to analyzing them; present a workflow problem and diagram; and identify how the EMR will change the flow of patients in the office;

Session IV: NYS Medicaid HIT/HIE Strategy (.75 CME Category 1 Credit)

- Inform physicians of the HIT strategies and standards endorsed by the Medicaid Program and the roles of EHR and ePrescribing in relation to reimbursement reform.

Session V: How to Configure EMRs to Meet Quality Standards for Chronic Disease and Qualify for BtE and P4P Incentives (.75 CME Category 1 Credit)

– Use of Analytics and Reporting: inform physicians about the analytics and reports necessary for EMRs to enable them to comply with Disease tracking and reporting of results and measurements to agencies such as CMS and Bridges to Excellence and/or Pay for Participation Programs;

Session VII: How EMRs use Clinical Decision Support to Improve Patient Safety (.75 CME Category 1 Credit)

– Inform physicians of the importance of engaging critical components, alerts, and query report mechanisms: describes the importance of drug interaction alerts, out-of-range lab results; trending features to illustrate condition activity over time and querying of patient data base to locate and notify patients affected by drug recalls/warnings such as VIOXX, Avandia, etc.; and the significance of how participation in a community patient data exchange leads to additional improvements in patient safety and quality outcomes.


MSSNY

Taking HIT to the Next Level

Harvard partners with Dossia = Indivo and Dossia

This system uses XML as its framework. I look forward to seeing discussion between Dossia and the current group of CCHIT EHRs. SV

On September 17th, 2007, the Children's Hospital Informatics Program and the Dossia Consortium announced that they would be partnering to make the Indivo PCHR the core of the anticipated Dossia Personally Controlled Health Record system. Dossia will provide resources to extend the core Indivo functionality and server architecture, which will remain open source and freely available. CHIP will also serve as an industry adviser to Dossia as the consortium pursues development of a national PCHR ecosystem.

Distinguishing Features of Indivo

The Indivo personally controlled health record differs from other PHR efforts in important ways:

Indivo places a strict emphasis on patient control and ownership of medical information and offers the detailed technical infrastructure to provide this control. Hence we use the term "personally controlled health record" to describe Indivo.

Indivo is an actual medical record, not a portal. (Portals, often provided by healthcare institutions, are windows through which patients can view, but not own or control, a portion of their health data stored at that institution.)

Indivo stores fully detailed clinical encounter records, taken from either electronic systems, paper reports or patient entry. Indivo's XML-based storage allows for a flexible data model and Indivo developers are working closely with the HITSP process to ensure broad interoperability.

Indivo's multi-level security model provides strong data security. Each record is encrypted, protecting against unauthorized access to servers or backup tapes.

Source code for Indivo is open and freely available to all developers, enabling straightforward local customization of Indivo, as well as interoperability between Indivo and other vendor products.

Indivo record owners can subscribe to data updates from hospital information systems, practices, and regional health information organizations (RHIOs) also known as subnetwork organizations (SNOs). Indivo records can also be registered with regional record locator services making their data available to institutions within the RHIOs/SNOs.

Indivo

Senators Kerry, Ensign Introduce E-Prescribing Bill to Modernize Medicine and Save Lives

I saw one source say the one time grant could be as high as $2000.00.
Similar incentives are being proposed by others for Medicaid and the Commercial plans.
Waivers are in place for hardship cases, though the time line for completion is shorter than many would find reasonable.
Contact your local Senator let them know what you think about e-Prescribing and the time line.
Thank you Senators Kerry and Ensign. SV

Specifically, the bill would:

1. Provide permanent Medicare funding for one-time grants to physicians to help offset the start-up costs to physicians of acquiring and implementing e-prescribing technology.

2. Provide permanent Medicare funding for payment bonuses to physicians for use of e-prescribing. For every Medicare prescription that is written electronically, physicians will be paid an extra 1% bonus.

3. Starting on Jan 1, 2011, physicians will be required to write their Medicare outpatient prescriptions electronically. Physicians that continue to write prescriptions by hand will face a per-claim financial penalty.

4. The Secretary of HHS will be given authority to grant one- or two-year hardship waivers for physicians who face particular difficulties in acquiring and implementing e-prescribing – especially those from rural areas or very small (or solo) practices

5. GAO and CMS will be directed to report within two years on the status of e-prescribing adoption within Medicare

Kerry

Network Magic and Carbonite back up

I've used Network Magic for two years and have been impressed with the ease of use.
It especially comes in handy when a I bring home a new wireless toy or Uncle Billy comes to visit with his laptop.
For a limited time, you can get a one year subscription to Carbonite unlimited backup, a $49 value. SV

Network Magic
Carbonite

Health Level Seven, America’s Health Insurance Plans, and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Sign MOU to Collaborate on Portability Standards for Personal Health Records

This collaboration will help promote standards across the Insurance Company based PHRs and will benefit people who may need to migrate between plans. SV

ANN ARBOR, Mich., – December 4, 2007 -- Health Level Seven, Inc. (HL7), America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), today announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create a collaborative process for the maintenance of portability standards for personal health records (PHR).
This MOU expands the number of stakeholders involved in the standards development process to help facilitate data portability between health insurance plans to give plan members the ability to move their personal health data when their health coverage changes.
Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, and CEO of HL7 said, “We applaud AHIP and BCBSA for investing in the early development efforts of the PHR data portability standards and for entrusting HL7 to maintain the standards. PHR’s will give consumers the power to integrate and manage their personal healthcare information and it provides a framework for standards-based interoperability between the consumer and the provider.”
Health insurance plan-based PHRs contain claims encounter and administrative data drawn from health insurance plan data sources as well as individuals’ self-entered information.

HL7

NORMAN PHYSICIAN HOSPITAL ORGANIZATION SELECTS eCLINICALWORKS UNIFIED EMR/PM SOLUTION

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.—November 28, 2007— eClinicalWorksTM, a market leader in ambulatory clinical systems, today announced that Norman Physician Hospital Organization (NPHO) has purchased licenses of eClinicalWorks electronic medical record (EMR) software to streamline practice operations for more than 100 providers in 31 affiliated practices. E-prescribing along with an interface between eClinicalWorks and Meditech, Norman Regional Health System’s laboratory component, will further automate physicians in their efforts to foster better, more efficient care in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings.

“NPHO’s long-term goal is to create a community health record for its patients,” said Gary Clinton, executive director of Norman Physician Hospital Organization (NPHO). “Implementing a clinical integration system is a major step in achieving this goal. NPHO selected eClinicalWorks for its superior track record in customer satisfaction and its commitment to ensuring its solutions work well with our current systems, including interfacing with Meditech.”

“I am very excited about this development. It is a critical first step towards improving health care and innovation in Norman for the next decade,” said Stephen Connery, MD, NPHO president.

NPHO is implementing eClinicalWorks unified EMR/PM system to streamline the clinical processes between practice locations and promote patient safety while reducing costs. eClinicalWorks is working with the Norman Regional Health System to create an interface with Meditech to streamline the sending and receiving of lab work. NPHO is also utilizing e-prescribing, providing a direct link between the practice and the computer at the pharmacy (not the fax machine), establishing a two-way electronic connection. eClinicalWorks Electronic Health eXchange (eEHX) may be added at a later date to create a community health record.

eClinicalWorks

Brooklyn’s Kings County Hospital Center to Introduce Self-Service Kiosks in the Emergency Department

As a person who had the benefit of training at Kings County Hospital, I am proud to see the institution continue its progressive vision. The local community will benefit from the option. SV

MAITLAND, Fla. – Kings County Hospital Center, a 627-bed public hospital located in Brooklyn, N.Y., plans to deploy self-service kiosks in its emergency department to streamline the check-in and triage process. The MediKiosk™ software solution, from Galvanon, an NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) company, automates patient registration and helps emergency department staff prioritize treatment based on medical urgency.

“Like many emergency departments, we experience extremely high patient volumes every day,” said Albert Porco, CIO of Kings County Hospital Center. “By using MediKiosk to expedite the check-in process, we will be able to better manage wait times and decrease stress associated with a visit to the emergency department.”

Galvanon

MSSNY HIT GRANT AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

A total of six winners of listed, one in each of the major regions of New York State for an approximate total of $4.58 Million. SV

MSSNY

CMS Proposes E-Prescribing Standards

On Nov. 13, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced that the department, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is proposing rules to adopt new standards to advance the use of electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) for formulary and benefit as well as medication history transactions used under the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The proposed standards will be published in the Nov. 16 Federal Register.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 requires CMS to adopt final standards for e-prescribing. All providers and pharmacies transmitting prescriptions electronically for Medicare-covered drugs are required to comply with any CMS standards in effect. The standards cover:

Transactions between prescribers and dispensers for new prescriptions; refill requests and responses; prescription change requests and responses; prescription cancellation, request, and response; and related messaging and administrative transactions
Eligibility and benefits queries and responses between prescribers and Part D sponsors
Eligibility queries between dispensers and Part D sponsors

E-prescribing standards (104 pages)

NYC DOHMH helps EHR software vendor develop features to monitor and improve population health

I have seen the team in action and it is very impressive. Under Dr Mostashari's leadership, a highly motivated group including physicians and public health professionals have significantly accelerated the evolution of Electronic Health Records. SV

Although e-health records are often touted as supporting disease prevention and better patient care, the systems available to doctors and clinics do not achieve those goals, an assistant commissioner of New York City’s health department told a congressional panel.

Even systems certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology generally lack four features needed to improve population health, said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, who heads New York City’s Primary Care Information Project.

He listed these features:


Structured data collection -- using standard terms and codes that can be interpreted by computers -- for a minimal set of priority clinical terms, such as smoking status.


Registry functions, which enable users to generate lists of patients needing certain treatments or tests. For example, a medical practice should be able to compile a list of all patients over age 50 who have not had colon exams and send them reminders.


Quality measures, or built-in capabilities to assess the health of a set of patients and how well they are being treated for priority conditions.


Decision support tools, which deliver reminders and warnings to doctors and inform them of best practices in treatment.

Mostashari said the city is working with its chosen EHR vendor to build these features into its system and will work with users of other products and their software providers to add functionality to those systems. Although Mostashari did not name the vendor, it is Westborough, Mass.-based eClinicalWorks.

He spoke at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization and Procurement.


GovHit

Oregon to receive federal grant money to create database for Medicaid patients

I wonder which company will get the contract. SV

A two-year $5.5 million federal grant aims to help Oregon create a secure online database of health records for the states 400,000 plus Medicaid beneficiaries.


Portland Tribune

CMS Medicare to reward use of Electronic medical records and e-prescribing in 2008

In addition to PQRI bonuses related to HIT (up to 1.5% of the their total allowed charges), CMS has pushed back the deadline for conversion to e-prescribing (non-faxed) to January 1, 2009. SV


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued a final physician payment rule designed to improve accuracy of Medicare payments and give physicians and health care professionals additional financial incentives to provide higher quality and value in the delivery of care.

These structural measures, which focus on whether a health care professional uses electronic health records and/or electronic prescribing, emphasize the importance of this technology for delivery of high-quality health care services. Physician and non-physician professionals not meeting PQRI measures will be allowed to participate by reporting on their use of health information technology. The Physician Assistance and Quality Initiative Fund will provide $1.35 billion for physician payment and quality improvement initiatives for services furnished in 2008.

CMS