Sheldon Needle is President of CTSGUIDES.COM, offering reviews, ratings, tools, and expert advice to help companies select software. Sheldon is a former CFO, consultant and software designer who has published more than 20 guides on software selection.
- The Value of the Checklist When Selecting Your EMR / EHR
- EMR Patient Portals
- Migrating from an old EMR to a new EMR: Where to Begin without Falling Apart
- Speech Recognition Software Can Increase Ease-of-Use for Doctors
- A Brief Overview of Differences between ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM Codes
- EMR, Medical Practice Coding, and the upgrade to HIPAA 5010 / ICD-10-CM
- What Should a Doctor be Looking for When he Examines EMR Templates?
- Electronic Health Records and the Challenge of Unstructured Data
- Don’t let Poor Planning Make the Migration to EMR/EHR More Difficult
- EHR for Doctors in 2012: What to Expect, What to Avoid
- What is the 5010 Standard and What Does it Have to Do with the Electronic Health Record?
- White House Pushing Hard to Get Doctors to Embrace EHR in 2011
- What is Preventing Your Medical Practice from Moving to EMR /EHR?
- Effective EMR Training: What to Look for from Your Vendor
- EMR / EHR Implementation: Minimize the Problems and Pitfalls
- Practice Management System Integration Question
- Training Tips for Implementing your New EMR
- Cloud Computing and EMR Software
- EHR / EMR Certification and its Impact on Your Medical Practice
White House and HHS Pushing Hard to Get Doctors and Hospital to Embrace EHRBy Sheldon Needle November 30, 2011: Today HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced incentives to speed the adoption and use of health IT in the form of meaningful-use qualified EHR in doctors’ offices and hospitals nationwide, which will improve health care and create jobs nationwide. The new administrative actions announced today, which will be made possible by provisions of the HITECH Act, will loosen requirements for doctors and other health care professionals to receive incentive payments for adopting and meaningfully using health IT. “When doctors and hospitals use health IT, patients get better care and we save money,” said Secretary Sebelius. “We’re making great progress, but we can’t wait to do more. Too many doctors and hospitals are still using the same record-keeping technology as Hippocrates. Today, we are making it easier for health care providers to use new technology to improve the health care system for all of us and create more jobs.” The press release continues to state: “HHS also announced its intent to make it easier to adopt health IT. Under the current requirements, eligible doctors and hospitals that begin participating in the Medicare EHR (electronic health record) Incentive Programs this year would have to meet new standards for the program in 2013. If they did not participate in the program until 2012, they could wait to meet these new standards until 2014 and still be eligible for the same incentive payment. To encourage faster adoption, the Secretary announced that HHS intends to allow doctors and hospitals to adopt health IT this year, without meeting the new standards until 2014. Doctors who act quickly can also qualify for incentive payments in 2011 as well as 2012.”“ (The italics are ours.) We need to understand what acting quickly means: buying in 2011? Incorporating EHR within the next month, so that meaningful use occurs in 2011? This is not yet clear. HHS is redoubling its effort to reach out with information, education, and the possibility of incentive payments to doctors and hospitals and vendors about stepping up the pace of transitioning practices and HER software to meet standards of Meaningful Use. What Meaningful use means to the individual practice depends on size, degree of implementation of the EHR, and the nature of the client base (how many Medicare or Medicaid patients, for instance, figures into the formula of Meaningful Use. The Obama Administration is working to create a nationwide network of 62 Regional Extension Centers, comprised of local nonprofits, to help eligible health care providers learn how to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs and meaningfully use health IT. See the HHS press release, at: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/11/20111130a.html to learn more. Keep your eyes on the newspapers, government announcements and on this blog to learn about EMR and EHR news and updates. If you are ready to seriously compare HER vendors, download our medical software comparison kit now. |
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