Under the American Recover and Reinvestment Act, eligible professionals can receive up to $64,000 for improving their healthcare technology. Under the HITECH act, eligible professionals who demonstrate meaningful use of a certified EMR can get reimbursements from the government, based on their Medicare Part B or Medicaid claims. Professionals can only qualify under either Medicare or Medicaid.
Under Medicare – Eligible Professionals include:
- A doctor of medicine or osteopathy
- a doctor of dentistry or dental medicine
- a doctor of podiatric medicine
- a doctor of optometry
- a chiropractor
Those who qualify under the Medicare portion receive the lesser amount of 75% of their Medicare Part B Claims or $44,000 over a period of 5 years, which includes a $3,000 early adopter bonus for those who qualify within stage 1 (2011 – 2012). Penalties apply after 2015 for those who do not qualify.
Under Medicaid – eligible professionals include:
- A doctor of medicine or osteopathy
- a doctor of dentistry or dental medicine
- a doctor of podiatric medicine
- a doctor of optometry
- a chiropractor
- a certified nurse mid-wife
- nurse practitioner
- physician assistant (certain circumstances)
Those who qualify under the Medicaid portion are eligible to receive the lesser amount of 85% of the total EHR cost, including software, training, implementation and support, or $63,500. In order to qualify, at least 30% of your cases must be attributed to Medicaid.
Under both the Medicare and Medicaid provisions, the eligible professional must prove meaningful use of a certified EMR. Meaningful use has been broken up into 3 stages:
- Stage 1 – 2011
- Stage 2 – 2013
- Stage 3 – 2015
Each stage will become increasingly specific. For 2011, there will be a 90 day reporting period. After that, the reporting period is a full year. Stage 1 requirements have been recently released and include:
1. User computerized physician order entry (CPOE) for over 30% of unique patients with at lease 1 medication in their list
2. Enable the drug-drug and drug-allergy check feature in their EMR
3. Use e-prescribing for at least 40% of all permissible prescriptions
4. Record demographics for more than 50% of unique patients – for preferred language, gender, race, ethnicity and date of birth
5. Maintain up to date lists for more than 80% of patients for: problem list, active diagnosis, active medication, allergies
6. Record and chart changes in vital signs for more than 50% of patients over the age of 2 for; height, weight, BP, BMI, (growth charts for ages 2-20 including BMI)
7. Record smoking status for more than 50% of patients over the age of 13
8. Implement one clinical decision support rule relevant to specialty or high clinical priority
9. Report ambulatory clinical quality measures to SCMS or the States (90 days for first year, full year after that)
10. Provide patients with electronic copy of : health information (diagnostic tests results, problem list, medication lists, medication allergies upon request), clinical summaries for patients for each office visit,
11. Capability to exchange key clinical information ex: problem list, medication list etc. (at least 1 test for stage 1)
12. Conduct or review a secuirty risk analysis to prove that patient files are protected
13. Implement drug-formulary checks
14. Incorporate lab tests into EMR as strucutured data
15. Report based on patients with specific conditions
16. Send reminders to patients for preventive, follow-up care
17. Use certified EHR technology to identify patient-specific education resources and provide those resources to the patient if appropriate
18. Provide patients with timely electronic access to their health information (including lab results, problem list, medication lists, medication allergies) within four business days of the information being available to the EP
19. The EP, eligible hospital or CAH who receives a patient from another setting of care or provider of care or believes an encounter is relevant should perform medication reconciliation
20. The EP, eligible hospital or CAH who transitions their patient to another setting of care or provider of care or refers their patient to another provider of care should provide summary of care record for each transition of care or referral
21. Capability to submit electronic data to immunization registries or Immunization Information Systems and actual submission in accordance with applicable law and practice
22. Capability to submit electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies and actual submission in accordance with applicable law and practice.
For more detailed information on the EMR stimulus, and meaningful use, click here.
To read the full Final Rule on Meaningful Use, Click Here.
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