Benefits Of Using Electronic Health Records

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the electronic health record mandate. Who started it and when? I will discuss the goals of the mandate. I will discussion will how the Affordable Care Act ties into the mandate of Electronic Health Record. It will describe my own facility’s EHR and what steps are been taken to implement it. I will describe the term “meaningful use,” and it will discuss possible threats to patient confidentiality and the what’s being done by my facility to prevent Health Information and Portability Accountability Act or HIPAA violations.

Electronic health records can provide many benefits for providers and their patients, but the benefits depend on how they 're used. Meaningful use is the set of standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Incentive Programs that governs the use of electronic health records and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria. The goal of meaningful use is to promote the spread of electronic health records to improve health care in the United States. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provides the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) with the authority to establish

A significant investment to encourage the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by healthcare providers was made by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The EHR Incentive Program, which financially rewards providers for using EHRs and meeting all CMS program requirements, was launched by CMS in the year 2011. All healthcare providers (private or public) are required to adopt and demonstrate ‘meaningful use’ of electronic health records for maintaining their existing Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement levels (Cite). A set of penalties for healthcare providers who fail to meet the deadline have already been defined by the U.S. government. Healthcare providers failing to introduce EHR systems by the year 2015 will experience a one percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements in that year, a two percent reduction in the year 2016, a three percent reduction in the year 2017, followed by a reduction of up to a 95 percent reduction in reimbursements over a period of

“Meaningful use is the set of standards defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) incentive programs that governs the use of the EHR and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting certain criteria” (Policy making…,2013). Eligible providers include doctors of medicine, osteopathy, oral surgery, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, and

Meaningful use means in simple providers need to show they are using certified EHR technology in ways that can be measured significantly in quality and in quantity.

According to the ONC, “meaningful use” means that certified EHRs are used to improve efficiency, safety, and quality; to reduce health disparity; to engage patients and their families; to improve coordination of care; and to maintain privacy and security of health information (“How to attain,” 2013). The vision was that compliance with the meaningful use requirements will ultimately result in, among others, improved clinical health and population health outcomes (“How to attain,” 2013).

To provide a positive impact on the lives of patients (Fuchs, 2014) based on the care that was rendered to them, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented an incentive program in the year of 2011 and provided bonuses to eligible providers (EP) that displayed a meaningful aspect by way of technology, by using electronic health records (EHR). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Meaningful Use program and an analysis of the implications for nurses. Also, in this paper additional recommendations for Meaningful Use will be discussed.

Use of EHR (electronic health records) in United States has increased in past years and have gained widespread use in the country. The use of EHR-Electronic Health Records or EMR-Electronic Medical Records and the systems that support them have gained standardized collection of health information and data for patient and healthcare providers. Because of these technologies, healthcare providers now have information about their patients at their fingertips, which has led to better and more accurate care. There are debates on using EHR. According to Mushtaq (2015), one of the most common debate is the use of EHR compliance and the value of these technologies that surround them (Mushtaq, 2015). Providers wonder if EHR use is useful and what is to be gained for the HCP-Healthcare provider. In regards to such debates and ongoing conversations, it is important to understand the definition of meaningful use and whether these technologies have resulted in meaningful use. According to Burchell (2016), The government developed the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act of 2009, which incorporates the meaningful use program (Burchell, 2016). The program has goals that tell us how to use the meaningful use with EMR or EHR. It helps HCP and organizations alike attain, use and keep goals like patient and clinical outcomes, individual patient autonomy, and increased transparency for providers. When these goals are attained and kept it will greatly

Meaningful Use is a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) program that awards incentives to eligible professionals (EP) and hospitals for using electronic health records (EHR) to improve patient care. This paper will provide an overview of the core criteria providers must follow to effectively use the EHR to qualify for the incentives and avoid penalties. The Meaningful Use criteria is implemented in three stages over five years to improve healthcare outcomes. This paper also explores the implementation of meaningful use in health information and how it has directly affected nursing, the nation’s public health, patient outcomes, and population health. Benefits of EMRs are improved patient care and coordination, quality of care and patient safety, improved efficiency and productivity, and financial savings.

This project will introduce steps to implement meaningful use final rules in the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs. The final rule’s provisions include 2015 through 2017 (Modified Stage 2) as well as Stage 3 in 2018 and beyond. The new rules apply to reporting periods during stage 1 to meet the meaningful use guidelines. Our objective is to create a plan to meet the new meaningful use guidelines of the EHR incentive program by the end of 2015 and start reporting on or 10 goals before October 3, 2015. The first components we must focus on is the time frame we should start reporting in. Secondly, we must focus on the preparation of reports on the ten objectives.

According to HealthIt.gov (2014) Meaningful Use (MU) is defined as a “certified electronic health record that helps improve patient quality; safety; efficiency and reduces health gaps; engage patients and

While the EHR system collects and stores PHI without paper records, there have been new initiatives that encourage use of the EHR. One of the major initiatives is from The Centers of Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). Meaningful Use (MU) is a program based on if the provider is using the EHR in a “meaningful way”. Providers have certain requirements they have to meet by using the EHR such as: electronic prescribing, clinical visit summaries, asking about advanced directives, reconciling medications and allergies, and smoking status, for example. The system then generates a report that automatically calculates the percentage of patients the provider sees whom have been asked the MU standards. Each MU standard has a different percentage requirement, and based on providers meeting those percentages determines if they are eligible for financial

Hospital based physicians are not eligible individually, the hospital as a whole is considered based on criteria. An incentive payment for an individual provider is based on the practice. Eligible hospitals and professionals can receive EHR incentive payments totaling $2 million or more. The incentive payment through Medicare is $44,000 and through Medicaid is $63,750 per clinician to implement use of electronic health records for these patients (HealthIT.gov, 2015). The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs also include three stages with increasing requirements for participation (HealthIT.gov, 2015). All providers begin participating by meeting the Stage 1 requirements for a 90-day period in their first year of meaningful use and a full year in their second year of meaningful use (HealthIT.gov, 2015). After meeting the Stage 1 requirements, providers will then have to meet Stage 2 requirements for two full years (HealthIT.gov, 2015). CMS has recently published a proposed rule for Stage 3 of meaningful use which focuses on the advanced use of EHR technology to promote health information exchange and improved outcomes for patients (HealthIT.gov,

The percentage of the healthcare providers who reported that the electronic health records are readily available at the point of care is 94% and the percentage of the providers who stated that the electronic health records showed the clinical benefits is 88%. The percentage of the physicians who reported that the electronic health records enable them to provide the enhanced care to the patients is 75% (Jamoom, Patel, King, & Furukawa, 2012).

It is important to understand that patients are very happy and satisfied when it comes to the electronic health system. This paper will discuss some of the benefits of an electronic health system that patients are enjoying.