Category — physician

By Neil Versel

The Health Resources and Services Administration is allocating some of its $2 billion in federal stimulus funding to help safety-net healthcare providers purchase EMRs and other health IT. This week, the HHS agency awarded $27.8 million in grants to 27 organizations that serve low-income and uninsured populations. The majority of the money–$22.6 million, covering 18 grants–will go toward EMR implementation projects. Another five of the grants are meant to help organizations that already have EMRs use their systems to improve patient outcomes, while others will go toward health information exchange.

“The grants make sure that our most vulnerable citizens will benefit from health information technology,” national health IT coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal says. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will coordinate the awards alongside the $1.2 billion ONC is allocating to state-level health information exchange and health IT extension centers.

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http://www.fierceemr.com/story/hrsa-grants-will-support-emrs-safety-net-clinics/2009-10-01#ixzz0TiERtHS7

By Wendy Johnson

Physician practices and hospitals that have yet to select or implement an EMR system should get a move on. Those who wait until next year will face a “high risk” of failing to achieve “meaningful use” of health IT in time for the 2011-12 federal incentives, Mark Leavitt, chairman of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, warned at the annual AHIMA conference on Monday in Grapevine, Texas.

“You’re dreaming if you think you can achieve it in less than a year,” Leavitt said, referring to hospitals. Achieving meaningful use of an EMR system will take at least 18 months, if not two years, he warned.

HHS expects to publish its criteria for certification of EMRs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as well as its definition of “‘meaningful use” for qualifying for ARRA Incentives, by the end of the year. Both measures should be finalized by spring 2010 after a public comment period. All told, the federal government will pony up $34 billion in incentives for meaningful use of certified EMR technology–the equivalent of what the U.S. spent to send the first man to the moon, Leavitt said.

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http://www.fierceemr.com/story/dont-wait-until-next-year-implement-emr-leavitt-warns/2009-10-06#ixzz0TiG540KQ

The Social Security Administration has set aside $24 million to expand a program under which it contracts with hospitals and health information exchanges willing to electronically share electronic health data on patients seeking disability benefits.

Each year, SSA makes more than 15 million patient-authorized requests for medical information from treating providers, but most of this exchange is paper based and as such is very inefficient, SSA officials say. They’re hoping the use of health IT will greatly improve the process.

SSA is looking for a provider willing to link to the agency via local HIEs and the Nationwide Health Information Network. Contracts for the project, proposals for which are due Sept. 18, will be funded through the stimulus law.

Using the NHIN, providers will get a standardized electronic request for medical records along with a patient’s authorization. Providers will then be able to automatically respond to SSA requests with a standardized Continuity of Care Document.

To be eligible for the project, providers must use a certified electronic health record app and be able to demonstrate the technical ability to create a sample Continuity of Care Document with de-identified EMR information.

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http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/social-security-budgets-24m-exchange-health-data-hospitals-and-hies/2009-08-10

By Anne Zieger

It’s only been a few days since the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology issued a report explaining how it would meet new HIPAA privacy and security rules specified in the stimulus package.

Experts argue whether the new report, which spells out plans for complying with a stimulus act section known as High Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH), actually says anything novel. Some argue that deadlines for action spelled out in the document just match those in the stimulus plan, while others see the plans as a good first step.

Be that as it may, HHS has said that it will spend about $24.3 million on new privacy and security efforts, including carrying out regulatory and enforcement requirements of HITECH and training for state attorneys general, audits and reports to Congress.

New HIPAA provisions include language broadening privacy rules and penalties to include business associates; clarify that HIPAA’s criminal sanctions apply to employees or other individuals that wrongfully use or access PHI held by a covered entity; prohibit sales of PHI without prior consent; and allow state attorneys general to bring civil damages actions.

The question is whether any of these actions do much to step up HIPAA enforcement. After all, to date, vanishingly few HIPAA investigations have actually taken place. The question, it seems, is whether HHS will make use of the tools it has, much less new one

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http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/will-hitech-portion-stimulus-strengthen-hipaa/2009-05-26#ixzz0SZzpAFQY

On Monday, National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal said state governments will provide the foundation for establishing a nationwide health information exchange infrastructure, Government Health IT reports.

Blumenthal spoke during the Medicaid Management Information Systems Conference in Chicago.

He said he hopes “in the very near future” to announce an initiative designed to help states create health data exchanges. Funding for the project would come from the $300 million set aside for such projects in the federal economic stimulus package’s health IT provisions.

Cross-Border Challenges

Blumenthal noted that states will need to determine how medical providers can exchange patient health data across state lines.

Although such coordination can boost patient care, privacy restrictions often pose challenges for cross-border data sharing, Blumenthal said.

Patient-Centered Care Coordination

Blumenthal suggested that officials use a patient-centered model when developing health data exchange policy.

He said, “If you think about where the patient is in this complex of rules, regulations and technological opportunities, you will find a path toward meaningful collaboration in effective use of health IT” (McCloskey, Government Health IT, 8/18).

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http://www.ihealthbeat.org/Articles/2009/8/18/Blumenthal-States-Must-Design-Health-Data-Exchange-Blueprint.aspx

Bernie Monegain, Editor

CHICAGO – The Obama adminstration’s chief for healthcare IT technology David Blumenthal, MD, was on the healthcare IT message from dawn to dusk Thursday - a part of the White House campaign to save its troubled healthcare reform plans.

The day started with an open letter from Blumenthal about the benefits of electronic health records and ended with another open letter from him on the $1.2 billion HITECH grants that had been announced earlier in the day.

Blumenthal joined Vice President Joseph Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Mt. Sinai Hospital on Chicago’s West Side for a roundtable discussion with nurses, doctors and administrators.

At the forum, the trio announced $1.2 billion in HITECH grants would be released - $598 million to create 70 health information technology extension centers across the country to help physicians and hospitals implement electronic health records and $564 million to help states support the development of health information exchanges.

“This is just the first wave of resources invested in health technology aimed at really transforming our paper-driven system to an electronic system over the next several years, providing help and support for hospitals and doctors as they make this conversion,” Sebelius said.

“It’s no coincidence that these two grant programs are leading the way,” Blumenthal said in this open letter at the end of the day. “Key to the successful adoption and meaningful use of EHRs is the assurance that providers have the help and guidance they need to select, implement and maintain a certified EHR system. In addition, we need the various and often disparate local, statewide and regional systems to work together, regardless of location and differing state and federal standards or policies, to enhance patient care.”

After the roundtable at Mt. Sinai, Sebelius introduced Blumenthal on a teleconference with the media. Blumenthal spoke briefly and responded to questions about concerns over data security and the definition of meaningful use of healthcare IT, a measure that will determine which providers are eligible to receive extra payments from Medicare and Medicaid.

He said the definition would be completed by the end of the year. On the security issue, he said the Health Information Technology Policy Committee would be asked to take up the topic of security soon.

“We understand that is critical,” he said. “The information that is passed within the healthcare system has to be secure or the public won’t have confidence in those electronic health records.”

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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/blumenthal-healthcare-it-message-dawn-dusk

The Georgia Department of Community Health has begun a series of meetings for the state Medicare Electronic Health Records Community Partnership, a program aimed at increasing EHR adoption among small- and medium-sized physician practices statewide, the department announced on Friday (Department of Community Health press release, 3/28).

The five-year program aims to provide financial incentives to physician groups that use certified EHRs to meet clinical quality measures, according to the Georgia DCH. The state will pay physicians annual bonuses for each year they score on a standardized survey assessing EHR use to support care delivery.

The state’s Medicare EHR Demonstration Project is part of Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue’s (R) goal of establishing a statewide strategy for health information to be readily accessible and transparent

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http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2008/3/31/Georgia-Begins-Planning-for-Incentive-Program-for-Doctor-EHR-Use.aspx?topicID=54

Diana Manos, Senior Editor

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is now releasing healthcare IT funding from the stimulus package to state Medicaid programs.

According to a CMS letter mailed Wednesday to state Medicaid directors, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enables the government to pay a 100 percent federal financial participation (FFP) match to states that help Medicaid providers adopt, implement or upgrade certified electronic health record technology to demonstrate meaningful use.

It will also pay a 90 percent FFP match to cover a state’s administrative costs for running an HIT Medicaid incentive program. States may now request the 90 percent FFP match for administrative planning activities, according to the letter.

Medicaid directors should contact their CMS regional office for further guidance and maintain ongoing communication while initiating planning activities. State health IT incentive programs should be part of larger statewide efforts to promote healthcare IT use and exchange.

CMS advised states who plan to apply for a FFP match to plan how they will audit their healthcare IT incentive payment programs for errors.

CMS is working on a final rule, due by the end of the year, with more information on how Medicaid providers will have to show meaningful use to qualify for health IT incentive payments.

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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/states-can-now-apply-health-it-medicaid-funding-cms-says

By Neil Versel

Dr. David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology, gave a strong indication of how HHS ultimately will define “meaningful use,” the standard that providers must meet to be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid EMR bonuses, by warning that hospitals unwilling to share data with others risk being shut out of the stimulus funding. “There’s a fair amount of money in the law for hospitals that adopt interoperability,” the Dallas Morning News quotes Blumenthal as saying. “If they don’t, they’re not likely to be eligible for payment.”

Although the three largest hospital operators in the Dallas-Fort Worth are implementing EMRs, there is no means for health information exchange between the systems or with smaller providers. The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council is only now working on an HIE feasibility study, and is seeking grant funding to lay the groundwork for data sharing, the newspaper reports.

In McAllen, TX, recently named the second-most-expensive healthcare market in the country, one physician executive believes that interoperability could help rein in some of the spending.

Let me know for further assistance.

http://www.fierceemr.com/story/blumenthal-must-share-data-get-stimulus-money/2009-06-25

President Obama believes one of the most effective ways to reduce health care costs is to go paperless. Children’s Mercy Hospital is one of a growing number of hospitals relying on electronic records, but recent studies found only nine percent of US hospitals and about 25 percent of doctor offices have gone to electronic records.

Everyone agrees that’s the trend but not everyone agrees it’ll save money and improve patient care.

Kansas City’s Internal Medicine Clinic moved to electronic medical records four years ago.

“We have everything, if we want to look at a lab, we push a button,” Dr. Marianne Hudgins said.

The administrative staff has shrunk by 5 and the clinic is adding a new doctor, but it’s patient quality that really impresses Dr. Hudgins.

“I think one of the beauties of this is that if it’s 2:00 in the morning and I get that call, I jump on my computer and I know everything about that patient,” Dr. Hudgins said.

Another obvious advantage of going paperless is more space, that become exam rooms.

“There are some benefits to the old paper way of doing it such as you can go through a 200 page chart in a matter of a minute,” Dr. Scott Kuennen with the Clay Platte Family Medicine Clinic said.

Dr. Kuennen’s clinic has plans to go electronic, but not until it absolutely has too.

“You’ll save money, in the sense that you’ll have less staff, you’ll be more efficient, not the case with anybody I’ve ever talked to,” Dr. Kuennen said.

He said the upfront costs are huge and adds too often doctors and hospitals aren’t on the same computer system until they are, he prefers paper.

The Obama administration is offering stimulus money to partially reimburse doctors who go electronic. One of the biggest benefactors could be Kansas City-based Cerner.

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http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-clinics
-paperless-records,0,7058639.story