Meaningful Use Of EHR System Analysis

The author, Judy Murphy, focuses mostly on how the government played a huge role in the adoption of EHRs into the medical world. Murphy brings up George Bush’s statement in his 2004 State of the Union address and Obama’s push to make that happen, but this is just scratching the surface of government interventions. The author discussed the money allocated by the acts such as “The Stimulus Bill” or “The Recovery Act” to help fuel the economy and rescue a struggling health care industry. She states how acts were passed, and how there were rules set in place to be followed by hospitals and providers around the United States. The article describes how the government is basically forcing these facilities to adopt EHRs by using a reward

In order to participate in stage 1 of the HITECH/ARRA incentive program, the Ambulatory care practice must choose an EHR that is specially certifies the EHR technology meets 100% of the CMS requirements. A CMS certification ID number must be provided. The factors to consider must include security, functionality and technical capability. CMS has provided a website to verify the certification of EHR products via the ONC website at oncchpl.force.com/ehrcert. Meaningful use is divided into 2 categories. The first is for hospitals and the second is for eligible professional. In order to qualify for incentive payments through Medicare EHR incentive program, Hospitals must meet 8 required core objective which Includes 1 public health objective (CMS.GOV, "2015 Program Requirements").

The Medicaid EHR Incentive Program will provide incentive payments to eligible professionals and eligible hospitals as they adopt, implement, upgrade, or demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology in their first year of participation and demonstrate meaningful use for up to five remaining participation years. The Medicaid EHR Incentive Program is voluntarily offered by individual states and territories and may begin as early as 2011, depending on the state. Eligible professionals can receive up to $63,750 over the six years that they choose to participate in the program. Eligible hospital incentive payments may begin as early as 2011,

A CIO is responsible for strategic vision and leadership, overseeing all HMIS applications and obtaining technology. They are required to ensure that acceptance of the new implementation is taking place and adoption practices are in place for all areas of the healthcare facility. They face the challenge of lining up priorities of the corporate authorities with HMIS strategies and goals, “including use of IT to improve administrative efficiencies and clinical productivity and effectiveness” (Tan, 2010) CIO surveys are conducted not only because a collective opinion is necessary when considering any IT purchase for a health care entity, but also to promote an awareness and understanding of the HMIS field. Opinions on accessibility, ease of use/learning

Meaningful Use engages patients and families in their health care, improve care coordination, improve population and public health and maintain privacy and security ("CMS," 2015, para. 1). Healthcare providers must show CMS that they are using their EHRs in ways that can positively affect the care of their patients. To do this, providers must meet all of the requirements established by CMS for this program and be able to demonstrate Meaningful Use of their EHRs to receive incentive reimbursement. The Meaningful Use program is divided into 3 stages which span 2011 (data capture and sharing), 2013 (advanced clinical processes) and 2015 (improved outcomes).

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are an important component in health care reform, but do they really bring efficiency to the practice? The extent to which practices use EHRs vary from the very basic (entering clinical notes and viewing results) to the intermediate (using e-Prescribing to indicate adverse drug prevention and provide suggestions for alternative drugs) to the advanced use (including lab and radiology order entry with testing guidance, capture of electronic charge, and evidence-based guidelines).

“Go Paperless and Get Paid” is how the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) presents the incentives for electronic health records. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. Department of HHS) distributed more than $160 billion dollars to “improve and preserve health care, health information technology, community health, and prevention initiatives” (United States Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2014e). Likewise, the ONC offers “Health IT Adoption Programs” through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, seeking to advance the American health care delivery system and to improve patient care through an unique investment towards health information technology (HHS, 2014d). Additionally, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reward eligible hospitals and professionals with monetary incentives as they implement, adopt, or upgrade and demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology (HHS, 2014b). The Electronic Health Records Improvement Act (H.R. 1331) introduced by the United States House of Representative Diane Black is a bill to further improve the nation’s health care adoption of health information technology.

In addition to the core elements, providers will have to choose any five of the ten additional tasks to implement in 2011-2012. Some examples of these might be clinical lab results, patient appointment reminders and drug-formulary checks. This gives the providers a chance to choose their own path toward full EHR implementation and meaningful use. Legislation ties payments to the achievement of advances in health care processes and outcomes. The regulations are specific as to when providers will have to use particular functions in order to be considered meaningful users. The meaningful use rule acknowledges the urgency of adopting the electronic health record and recognizes the challenges it will pose on all providers.

The purpose of this discussion board is to describe the Electronic Health Record (EHR), the six steps of an EHR and how my facility implements them, describe “meaningful use” and how my facility status is in obtaining it, and to further discuss the EHR’s and patient confidentiality.

These rewards serve as gratification and the offered initiatives contribute to the prevailing positive attitudes from the physicians toward EHRs. These benefits include improved patient safety and quality of care, the ability to reduce healthcare cost, and ultimately better patient health outcomes and satisfaction. According to Jamoom et al. (2013), having the ability to access the patient’s charts remotely, being warned to critical lab values and potential medication errors, and the systems’ ability to identify needed lab tests are all reported benefits of the EHR. Improved overall patient care, the ordering of less medical test due to the availability of lab results, and the ordering of more on-formulary medications are all advantages that physicians reported occurring due to the adoption of the EHRs. The adoption and implementation of the EHR has presented challenges for information technology. These benefits of the EHR outweigh the initial dissatisfaction of the physicians. For the adoption of EHR to be successful in the healthcare industry it is important that the physician’s outlook remain

Under the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, or the Stimulus Act”), certain eligible providers are eligible for financial incentives for following and documenting “meaningful use” of a certified electronic medical record system. According to the HRSA, “in July 2010, the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule which established three phases of the EHR Incentive Program. The three stages of Meaningful Use are designed to support eligible professionals and hospitals with implementing and using EHRs in a meaningful way to help improve the quality and safety of the nation’s healthcare system.” The end point here is not that having an electronic medical record will allow for a

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

There are so many Incentive Programs that provide financial incentives for the use of certified EHR technology to improve patient and by taking part the Center can receive incentive payments for certain Medicaid health care and can receive up to a maximum of $63,750 over six years participation. Although to qualify we must have a minimum 30% of Medicaid patient volume and a practice predominantly in a Federally Qualified Health Center and have a minimum 30% patient volume attributable to needy individuals.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) states that in order to realize meaningful use of the EHR technology, healthcare providers are obliged to apply the technology in a approach that enriches quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare delivery; ebbs healthcare inconsistencies; involves patients and families; enriches care coordination; expands population and public health; and guarantees sufficient privacy and security guards for personal health information. (U.S Department of Health and

“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