| CMS reps want to ensure healthcare providers | | | | final rule that was issued on January. 13, 2010, but |
| optimize your chances of collecting from the EHR | | | | that the standards published are still under |
| incentive program, which could net an eligible | | | | comment period. |
| professional (EP) $44,000 over a period of five | | | | Who's an EP? |
| years. | | | | According to Holland, you are considered a |
| According to a February 21 CMS-sponsored | | | | Medicare EP if you fit into one of these |
| Physicians, Nurses, and Allied Health Professionals | | | | categories: |
| Open Door Forum, CMS' proposal pertaining to the | | | | Doctor of medicine or osteopathy |
| incentive program informs who can participate | | | | Doctor of dental surgery/dental medicine |
| and what type of EHR you will have to use. | | | | Doctor of podiatric medicine |
| What you should know... | | | | Doctor of optometry |
| Now that the agency has proposed a definition of | | | | Chiropractor |
| who qualifies as a 'meaningful user', CMS has | | | | Although Medicaid incentive payments are there |
| started making use of the acronym "MU" to refer | | | | for some other providers (be it nurse |
| to meaningful use, stressed Charlotte Newman, | | | | practitioners and certified nurse midwives who |
| director of the national Medicare training program | | | | meet all of the criteria), those providers are not |
| with CMS's Office of External Affairs, during the | | | | considered EPs under Medicare's incentive |
| call. | | | | program. |
| EHR system shopping alert: At this point, | | | | Holland said, "One of the most controversial |
| providers may want to hold off on shopping for | | | | provisions in this notice of proposed rulemaking is |
| EHR. | | | | the hospital-based eligible professionals one." |
| Elizabeth Holland, the HITECH team lead in the | | | | "Fundamentally in the proposal we determined the |
| office of E-Health Standards and Services at CMS, | | | | definition for hospital-based. These EPs will not |
| said during the call, "In order to get an incentive | | | | qualify for Medicare EHR incentive payments and |
| for your meaningful use of a certified EHR, there | | | | most will not meet the criteria for Medicaid also." |
| is requirement for EHRs that are certified." | | | | CMS defined hospital-based EPs as those who |
| Holland informed that as of today, there're no | | | | provide 90 percent or more of their services in a |
| EHRs that have been certified for the CMS | | | | hospital setting "and that is determined by the |
| incentive program. "We'll be able to provide you | | | | place of service codes on the claim," said Holland. |
| with a list of those EHRs at a later date, which is | | | | Privacy: Providers worried about confidentiality |
| yet to be determined." | | | | should note that information included in the EHRs |
| One caller said that her practice is keen to buy a | | | | is subject to the same HIPAA requirements as |
| certified EHR system to get it into place, and | | | | other PHI, indicated Holland. |
| asked when she might have access to the | | | | Non-par practices: Physician practices that are |
| standards that the EHR vendors must meet. | | | | considered non-participating in Medicare still face |
| The CMS representative pointed out that the | | | | the same criteria and eligibility factors for the |
| standards are available for viewing in the interim | | | | incentive program as those that do participate. |