Meaningful Use FAQs
The U.S. government is focused on two primary goals in the current EHR/EMR legislation: moving physicians who have been slow to adopt electronic health records to a computerized environment, and ensuring that patient data no longer sits in silos within individual provider organizations but instead is actively and securely exchanged between health care professionals. Therefore, the vast majority of the funds within the HITECH Act are assigned to payments that will reward physicians and hospitals for effectively using a robust, connected EHR system. There is a program designed for those that see large volumes of Medicaid patients, and another for those that accept Medicare.
EHR/EMR Meaningful Use Criteria
In order to qualify for the incentive payments, both physicians and hospitals have to demonstrate that they meet “meaningful use” criteria. Additionally, because the government wants to spur quick movement in this area, all of the incentives include payments for up to five years but provide the largest payments early in the program, and those that don’t demonstrate meaningful use of an EHR under the Medicare component of the program will eventually be penalized through lower payments. The incentive payments begin in 2011 to ensure the providers have time to adopt and learn to use the EHR; penalties begin in 2015.
Why Act Now with a Qualifying EHR/EMR Software?
Once you select EHR software, additional time is required for implementation, training and then allowing your staff to become proficient and for your use to be considered meaningful. Most experts predict meaningful use means having at least one year of active EHR use at the point-of-care. Waiting could delay and/or reduce what you may receive in stimulus payments. Industry experts are predicting an unprecedented surge in number of physicians purchasing EHR and rushing to learn it to be considered a “meaningful user” in 2011. Providers who choose to wait can expect the following:
- Pay more for both EHR software & training. As EHR vendors get busy with the rush of buyers, they’ll be less willing to negotiate over the price.
- Wait longer for implementation & training. Due to limited resources of professionals in this field, a rush of buyers will make the queue of implementation much longer than usual.
- Rushing the implementation will sacrifice the quality. To make a physician a meaningful user of an EHR in a rush could reduce the quality of the implementation leading to frustration for the physician and the staff. The same project done in a timely manner will yield maximum benefits from using an EHR.
- Meaningful Use can be achieved an average of one year after go-live date.
- Delaying the purchase means delaying the stimulus payments or losing them altogether.
Are there Penalties for Not Using an EHR?
Starting January 1, 2015, eligible providers who are not meaningful users of a certified EHR will begin to have their Medicare reimbursements drop 1% per year until it reaches 3% in 2017.
What Happens in Stage 2 and 3 of Meaningful Use? Will I have to use more of my EHR to Obtain the Financial Incentives?
Yes, the expectation is that you will be using more of your EHR. Stage 2 and Stage 3 meaningful use will expand on the Stage 1 criteria.
Stage I Objectives
- ePrescribing
- CPOE
- Clinical Decision support
- Interoperability
- Public health reporting
- Quality reporting
Stage 2 Objectives
EHR use will likely transition all the menu objective into the Core set of EHR Objectives. In addition, the percentage of use objectives will increase. CMS will follow a similar rule-making process as they have for the Stage 1 requirements, so we will be learning more about Stage 2 through 2011 & 2012. Preliminary discussion on phase 2 requirements have mentioned the following criteria as areas of additional use.
- ePrescribing, refills
- Electronic transmission of orders entered using CPOE
- Electronic transmission of diagnostic test results
- Electronic summary record, including physician visit notes
- Receive health alerts from public health departments
- Will include greater emphasis on health information exchange across institutional boundaries
AdvancedMD can Help You Become a Meaningful User
In order to demonstrate that you are a meaningful user of a certified EHR, you should prove that you:
- use your EHR actively at the point of care (experts predict for at least a year)
- use your EHR software for ePrescribing
- use your EHR to receive and share patient data to the next provider of care for continuity and quality of care (this is also known as an interoperability), and
- use an EHR software that is capable of clinical reporting
Our team of experienced project managers and trainers can help you meet all of the above requirements. AdvancedMD EHR software is already well positioned to help you maximize your incentive payments in year one. We are closely monitoring emerging requirements.