2/28/2011

EHR- Got one?

motivate squish

Dr. Blumenthal Discusses Registration for EHR Incentive Programs (video +)

In the Blumenthal video above, he gave some statistics:
  • About 80% of the hospitals plan to implement EHRs and work on complying with the stimulus fund program over the next two years.
  • 40% of private practice physicians plan on doing the same, and 80% of them plan on implementing and working their EHR over the next two years.
  • 18% of private practice physicians said they will not participate at all.
We know that the magic stimulus dollar amount an individual physician can get over the five years is $44,000. I was also reading that hospitals can get reimbursements and aid of up to $2 million.



Now, per the ONCHIT’s article “Now's the Time to Register for EHR Incentive Programs” (where there was a link to this article) they gave their top three reasons why they believe you should register for incentives now (of course is providing that you are ready to go with your EHR).

  1. Adopting and achieving meaningful use of EHRs takes time.
  2. Begin participating in 2011 and 2012 to earn the maximum incentive.
  3. These incentive programs will not always be available and financial penalties are scheduled to take effect in 2015.


This article also lists a bunch of links and additional information to “get you started”, including an incentive program webinar, which is free to view.


The same e-mail that gave me the link to the updated ONC HIT information, also gave the following information and link… interesting.

“CMS Announces Initial Registration Numbers for EHR Incentive Programs

CMS reported that more than 21,000 providers initiated registration for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs in January. In addition, more than 45,000 providers requested information or registration help from Regional Extension Centers.”


1 comment:

GS Medical Team said...

It mentions 44,000 for cms incentive but not the 62,000 incentive from
medicaid

carol cook

(comment received by e-mail, permission given to post)

Response from Genius News Editor- PennyH

Hi Carol-

Nope. Good Catch. I was only giving the Medicare amounts which is what most people know about and applies to the most providers of various specialties (& all they actually mentioned in the articles I was looking at this go article). As far as Medicaid - you have to choose Medicare or Medicaid, you apply and work one program or the other. We have older articles that go into quite a bit of detail about it on the blogs. The one that lays out the bones for both programs is called "EHR Incentives and Meaningful Use for Eligible Professionals", plop this title into search- and it should bring it right up for you. You will also be able to click on the FEDERAL "tag" and get any meaningful use articles as well.

For the latest information on any of these programs (they are in constant flux) I always recommend that you visit the ONCHIT web site.

And thanks for reading! You can also log your comments to any of the blog articles. It will send me a note so that I can see it when you post it. It lets me authorize the comments so the blog (and you) don't get spammed to death with advertising "comments".