Category — ARRA

By Jennifer Lubell

West Virginia has received $6 million in federal stimulus funds to establish a regional health information technology extension center.

The center has been designated as the statewide organization to provide education, training and support services to help the state’s primary-care providers implement and meaningfully use health information technology for the purpose of improving patient outcomes.

“It should be active this summer,” said an aide to West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who along with other local and state officials announced on June 8 the effort to help primary-care doctors adopt electronic health.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus law, mandates that providers meaningfully use an electronic health-record system to qualify for up to an estimated $27.3 billion in federal reimbursements.

To help physicians become eligible for these incentive payments, the center will, among other initiatives, provide assistance in the selection and purchasing of electronic health-record systems, project management and implementation services, and guidance on privacy and security matters.

“West Virginia remains a national leader in the adoption of health information technology, and this statewide health information-technology extension center will be another key component of our ongoing efforts to use technology to improve the health of our citizens,” Manchin said in a written statement. “This project is the latest example of how West Virginia is working to modernize its healthcare delivery system in order to improve overall healthcare, enhance efficiencies and facilitate greater information-sharing between physicians and patients,” he said.

Source:http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100609/NEWS/100609949

On Thursday, CMS awarded federal stimulus funding to six state Medicaid programs for planning activities related to the implementation of an electronic health record incentive program, AHA News reports.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, states can receive a 90% federal match for planning activities to:

• Administer EHR incentive payments to Medicaid providers;
• Ensure proper payments through audits; and
• Promote interoperability and “meaningful use” of EHRs (AHA News, 3/25).

According to CMS’ announcement of the awards:

• Colorado will receive $798,000;
• Mississippi will receive $1.47 million;
• Nevada will receive $1.05 million;
• North Carolina will receive $2.29 million;
• Utah will receive $396,000; and
• Wyoming will receive $596,000 (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 3/25).

Since November, CMS has awarded matching funds to 32 states and territories (AHA News, 3/25).

Above article publish on http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2010/3/26/six-states-get-federal-matching-funds-for-ehr-incentive-programs.aspx

By, Rich Silverman

Massachusetts, long a leader in the delivery of quality medical care to its citizens, has just received more than $24 million from the federal government to speed the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) throughout the Commonwealth.

According to a report in govmonitor .com, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) has authorized the release of the $24 million, the maximum that Massachusetts is entitled to under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. According to the report, $13.4 million will go to support the adoption of EMRs throughout the Commonwealth, and another $1.6 million will go toward creating a statewide high-speed communications system for medical data and records.

According to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, “This federal funding will help reduce health care costs and improve patient care using proven technologies, many of which are developed right here in Massachusetts.” Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray added that in addition to streamlining health care, the money would help create jobs.

The grants, given in furtherance of the adoption of EMRs, will be administered by the Massachusetts e-Health Institute, the state agency created for that purpose. One if its key goals, according to an article in MassHighTech.com, will be to ensure the privacy of all medical records in the state.

Couple the release of this funding with recent news that meaningful use has finally been defined and that ONC is taking definitive steps to develop a certification, and it looks like providers in Massachusetts are finally getting the tools they need to fully implement EMRs.

Above article publish on http://blog.pchealthstop.com/?p=849

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act establishes an incentive program that provides incentive payments to eligible physicians (EP) and eligible hospitals for meaningfully using electronic health records (EHR). While many specialists are learning the conditions under which they can capitalize on these incentive payments, anesthesiologists will learn that they do not qualify as EPs, thus not able to receive incentive payments for their meaningful use of EHRs.

One requirement that a physician satisfy is that s/he is a non-hospital-based physician. “Hospital-based” physicians are defined to include those that provide 90% of their Medicare-covered services within a Place of Service (POS) of 21, 22, or 23–either an inpatient hospital, outpatient hospital, or emergency room hospital, respectively. Furthermore, the statute explicitly states that anesthesiologists–who furnish substantially all of their Medicare-covered services in a hospital setting, using the hospital’s facilities and equipment, and qualified EHRs–are not eligible to receive the incentive payments because they are not bringing their own equipment to the hospital in furtherance of the medical services they perform. If a hospital demonstrates is meaningful use of an EHR, it can qualify for incentive payments.

Above article publish on http://www.attorney-dwi.info/health/incentive-payments-for-meaningful-use-of-ehr-technology-does-not-apply-to-anesthesiologists/

Practices that have been waiting for CMS to define the term “meaningful use” are finally in luck. But as is always the case when the feds are involved, don’t look for a quick one-sentence definition.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 (ARRA) offers annual bonuses to practices that show “meaningful use” of electronic health records, and in 2015, practices that aren’t showing meaningful use will face penalties.

On Dec. 29, CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced that the definition was finally available for public comment. “CMS’s proposed regulation would define and specify how to demonstrate ‘meaningful use’ of EHR technology, which is a prerequisite for receiving the Medicare incentive payments,” said Charlene Frizzera, CMS’s acting administrator, in a Dec. 30 statement.

25 measures: Stage 1 of the meaningful use criteria (which begins in 2011) includes 25 objectives/measures for eligible professionals (most Part B practices fall under this category) and 23 objectives/measures for eligible hospitals. To be considered a meaningful EHR user, you must meet all of the criteria set forth.

For example: The following includes just a sampling of what you’ll find in the list of 25 meaningful use criteria for stage one of the incentive program. To read the complete list, check out the proposal in the Federal Register.

• Use a computer physician order entry (CPOE)
• Implement drug-drug, drugallergy, drug-formulary checks
• Maintain an up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses based on ICD-9 or SNOMED CT
• Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically
• Maintain an active medication list
• Maintain an active medication allergy list
• Record demographics (preferring language, insurance type, gender, race, ethnicity, and date of birth)
• Record and chart changes in vital signs
• Record smoking status for patients age 13 and older
• Incorporate clinical lab test results into EHR as structured data
• Generate lists of patients by specific conditions
• Report ambulatory quality measures to CMS
• Send reminders to patients for preventive follow-up care (per patient preference)
• Implement five clinical decision support rules relevant to specialty or high clinical priority
• Check insurance eligibility electronically from payers
• Submit claims electronically.

Keep in mind: You can not only qualify for a financial bonus if you use EHRs — but you could also boost your practice’s efficiency, CMS says. “Widespread adoption of electronic health records holds great promise for improving health care quality, efficiency, and patient safety,” said David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health information technology, in a Dec. 30 statement.

CMS will accept public comments on the rule for 60 days, either electronically or by mail (CMS, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-0033-P, P.O. Box 8013, Baltimore, MD 21244-8013). If you do submit comments, refer to ID CMS-0033-P.

Article publish on http://hitnews.inhealthcare.com/fact-finder/hitech-physicians-must-meet-25-criteria-to-achieve-meaningful-use/?dynamic_id=2086766482

By Molly Merrill

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology on Tuesday launched a new modular certification program called Preliminary ARRA 2011, which will focus solely on ‘meaningful use’ objectives and accompanying standards needed to qualify for federal stimulus funding.

The modular certification process was released along with the CCHIT’s updated certification program, called CCHIT Certified 2011.

“Our decision to move forward instead of waiting has been met with a very positive response,” said Alisa Ray, CCHIT’s executive director. “The ‘Get Certified’ workshop on October 1 exceeded our attendance expectations, drawing over 310 people, with strong interest in both programs. Today, we are opening both of our 2011 programs for certification applications from vendors and developers.”

The commission has introduced a new label, called “Certification Facts,” to help physicians and hospitals understand the differences in the EHR technology certified under the two separate programs. Each certified product or technology listed at the commission’s Web site will have a link to a page describing its qualifications.

For EHRs in the CCHIT Certified 2011 Comprehensive program, the Certification Facts label will indicate not only the domain – ambulatory, inpatient, emergency department or ePrescribing – and options – cardiovascular medicine, child health and advanced interoperability – but also the meaningful use objectives supported by the product.

In addition to the Certification Facts label, that page will include – for CCHIT-certified products only – an optional Usability Rating, as well as information about the product and company. The commission says these features will become searchable in November or December as EHR products complete the 2011 inspection process and are announced.

For technology certified in the Preliminary ARRA 2011 program, the Certification Facts label will only indicate which of the meaningful use objectives are supported by the technology. The label will allow eligible providers and hospitals to understand which product – or products in combination – can support all the necessary objectives to qualify for incentive funding contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Above article published on - http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cchit-offers-modular-program-focusing-meaningful-use

By John Moore

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services today awarded $16 million in matching funds among six states and the U.S. Virgin Islands to help them plan their systems and processes for the upcoming task of managing electronic health record incentive payments.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s HITECH provisions offer incentives of up to $63,750 over six years for Medicaid providers who can demonstrate meaningful use of EHR.

State Medicaid offices, not the federal CMS agency, will manage the incentive payments to Medicaid providers in their state.

The $16 million in funding announced today involves a separate ARRA funding stream, which provides a 90 percent federal match for state planning activities. The Medicaid incentive payments are expected to begin in 2011.

States receiving funds Wednesday include California ($2.48 million), Georgia ($3.17 million), Idaho ($142,000), Montana ($239,000), New York ($5.91 million), Texas ($3.86 million), and the U.S Virgin Islands ($232,000). Those states join Iowa, which received CMS planning funds last month.

To qualify for the matching funds, states must demonstrate, among other things, that it “uses the funds for purposes of administering the incentive payments including the tracking of meaningful use of certified EHR technology by Medicaid providers,” according to CMS’ September letter to state Medicaid directors.

Above article published on http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?tid=10&nid=72701

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and National Health IT Coordinator David Blumenthal, MD, this week announced the availability of $235 million in grants for “beacon communities” to act as models for health IT implementation.

Funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), the Beacon Community Program plans to build and strengthen health IT infrastructure and health information exchange capabilities, including strong privacy and security measures for data exchange, within 15 communities.

At a press conference, Sebelius stated that these beacon communities are on the forefront of health IT and that they will help answer the question: “What health benefits will we get when we make significant, concentrated investments in health IT?”

Blumenthal clarified that $220 million is set for cooperative agreements, $10 million for evaluation funds and $5 million for technical assistance to communities.

In response to a question concerning the nature of the evaluation funds, Blumenthal stated that “[w]e want to learn from these examples, so we want to know who’s succeeding and why, [and] derive lessons that can be communicated to other communities that will accelerate their progress towards improving healthcare using EHRs.”

Cooperative agreements will be awarded to qualified nonprofit organizations or government entities representing diverse geographic areas, including rural and underserved communities. To qualify for the Beacon Community Program, applicants are expected to:

• Build on existing health IT infrastructure to demonstrate care and cost savings;
• Have rates of EHR adoption that are significantly higher than published national estimates; and
• Coordinate with recently announced Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) programs for Regional Extension Centers and State Health Information Exchanges to develop and disseminate best practices for adoption and meaningful use of EHRs to support national goals for widespread use of health IT

Above article published on http://www.healthimaging.com/index.php?option=com_articles&view=article&id=19770:hhs-announces-235-million-in-grants-available-for-qbeacon-communitiesq

By Brian Robinson,

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is still on target to publish by the end of the year a proposed rule on the meaningful use of electronic health records, despite growing fears from industry about the possible impact of the regulation.

Tony Trenkle, director of the Office of e-Health Standards and Services at CMS, said he had been spending a lot of time with health industry folks who have expressed “concerns and fears” about what will be in the regulation.

Those include how high the bar will be set for meeting meaningful use targets during the first year of implementation, and whether the industry will be able to meet them, he told a meeting today of National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS).

Other concerns include whether hospitals outpatient clinics would be eligible to receive separate payments, whether quality measures will disadvantage specialty health providers, and worries particularly by the states about whether CMS would be able to harmonize Medicare and Medicaid requirements.

Under the HITECH Act, a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, health care providers can receive payments from both the Medicare and Medicaid programs if they can demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs. Payments are due to begin in 2011.

One of the major outcomes of the Nov. 19-20 NCVHS meeting is expected be a letter setting out recommendations to the Secretary of the Health and Human Services for measures that can be applied to decide on just what meaningful use is.

They include commissioning a “fast track” study from the Institute of Medicine on a national strategy for quality measurement development, to begin a process to identify essential data elements, to require EHR vendors to use defined quality data elements, and to require that any certified EHR be able to add data elements that may be defined in the future.

The NCVHS expects to release the final version of the letter at the Nov. 20 conclusion of its meeting.

Above article published on http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?tid=10&nid=72449

Posted by Mitch Wagner,

National health IT coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal dropped a big hint about upcoming criteria for giving out e-health records grants. He advised healthcare IT managers to focus on “goals of care” rather than technology.

Blumenthal works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for giving out grant money to reimburse healthcare providers for implementing electronic medical records. The U.S. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which set aside the money, specified that the funding will go to “meaningful use” of EMRs, but did not specify a definition for the phrase. HHS plans to release a preliminary definition of meaningful use next month. But Blumenthal dropped a hint at an address at the Medical Informatics Association’s annual symposium. He “gave attendees what they wanted to hear by reiterating his philosophy that technology simply is an enabler of quality improvement, not a panacea for healthcare,” according to FierceEMR.

“The meaningful use framework will be about the goals of care, not the technology,” Blumenthal said. While he didn’t elaborate on that statement, he did state the position of the Obama administration–one largely held by the informatics community, if not the broader healthcare industry–that the billions of dollars in federal subsidies aren’t simply meant to buy EMRs for providers. “It’s not the money that will turn out to be the most important,” Blumenthal said.

Instead, the net $19 billion investment is a way to demonstrate that EMRs should and will be accepted in the fairly near future as “symbolic of professionalism in medicine,” just as much as the stethoscope or examination table are today. “The idea that government should subsidize health IT will be as foreign an idea that the government should buy stethoscopes or exam tables for doctors,” Blumenthal explained.

“Information is really the lifeblood of medicine,” Blumenthal added. “Health information technology is its circulatory system.”

Final standards for meaningful use will be released in the spring, after a period of public comment on the first effort to be released by the end of the year, according to a ModernHealthcare.com write-up of Blumenthal’s address.

Blumenthal stressed that health IT must be focused on the goal of making the healthcare system work better for patients and providers.

“It’s not the technology that’s important, but its effect,” Blumenthal said. “That’s the purpose of the stimulus bill.”….

While Blumenthal declined to give a specific definition of meaningful use, he offered some hints. People working in health IT should think about EHRs “not as a technology project, but as a change-management project,” he said. Components of meaningful use include sociology, psychology, behavior change and the “mobilization of levers to change complex systems and improve their performance,” he added.

Through the stimulus law, Congress mandated that meaningful use become more focused over time, with yearly benchmarks. There has been a “lively discussion” in the Obama administration of that timetable in the proposed rulemaking of meaningful use, Blumenthal said.

Privacy and security will be essential, he said.

HHS plans to announce the first round of recipients of two major rounds of grants soon, Blumenthal said. The first, for $700 million, will establish up to 70 health IT regional extension centers nationwide to help healthcare providers become meaningful users of EHRs. The second program offers $560 million in grants to states to develop health information exchanges linking providers.

HHS also plans programs to increase the supply of trained health IT workers.

“The skills needed are not necessarily what our teenage children have,” Blumenthal said, which brought laughter from the crowd.

Specifically, the nation needs professionals who understand meaningful use and improved processes of care, the ability to redesign workplaces to integrate the new technology and to help providers use the technology to its full potential, he said.

“The training needed is well beyond the installation of information technology,” he said.

Blumenthal expressed great confidence that health IT can be a foundation for fundamental change in the healthcare system.

“I believe it will be a short time before EHRs are as common in medicine as the stethoscope, the cardiogram, the MRI and other core tools,” he said. “I think we’re already moving in that direction.”

Above article published on http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/11/blumenthal_pati.html;jsessionid=0K5NXFIO4JNUHQE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN