Essay National Ehr Mandate

CAMC is constantly evolving and following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, it was decided that a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) (See detailed spreadsheet – Appendix A) should be performed to ensure compliance with these acts. Adoption of the EHR will mean that CAMC would qualify for incentive payments from the Medicaid and Medicare programs for if they can demonstrate that they are making “Meaningful Use” of an EHR system to

In July 2010 CMS Centers of Medicaid and Medicare services published a final rule which established three phases of the EHR Incentive Program. The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program provides financial incentives for the “meaningful use” (MU) of certified Electronic Health Record technology to improve patient care. 36$ billion was authorized.

HITECH Act provides billions of dollars in incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid programs to providers that meaningfully use EHR. The HITECH Act also revised many segments of the Social Security Act (SSA) and in doing so, recognized the accessibility of incentive payments to providers to encourage the acceptance and Meaningful Use of Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT). The ARRA provides the incentives to the following groups: hospitals, healthcare clinics, private practices, nursing facilities, long term health care facilities, and metal institutions.

They have implemented and upgraded their EHR system to correspond what was requested by federal government to receive incentive. HealthIT.gov states, “To demonstrate meaningful use under Stage 2 criteria - EPs must meet 17 core objectives and 3 menu objectives that they select from a total list of 6, or a total of 20 core objectives. Eligible hospitals and CAHs must meet 16 core objectives and 3 menu objectives that they select from a total list of 6, or a total of 19 core objectives.” (HealthIT.gov, 2015). As I examined it closely, the Charm EHR met 11 out of 16 core objectives of hospital/CAH and 4 out of 6 menu objectives. They’ve clearly met and demonstrated that meaningful use criteria under stage 2 criteria. Hence, the charm EHR exceeded their required core objectives and criteria that they should not have difficulty receiving CMS incentive payment for their effort in implementing and upgrading their EHR

The EHR/EMR was mandated in 2009 it was a provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, they are encouraging the providers to start using the EHR. A of January 1, 2014 all public and private healthcare groups must have adopted and be demonstrating a meaningful use of the EHR so that they can collect the reimbursement from Medicaid and Medicare. The EHR/EMR have to be in facility in working order at the beginning of 2015. The definition of meaningful users to improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce health disparities. There is 3 stages of meaningful use, to meet the first deadline of stage one is October 2012. Stage two and three go over the health information that you exchange with the providers, in these stages you will

To qualify for these incentives, physicians have to prove they have achieved a “meaningful use” of an EHR system. “Meaningful use” refers to attaining three EHR system components: (1) using an EHR system that possesses e-prescribing capability, which attains existing U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) standards (e.g. physicians are already e-prescribing using federally-accepted standards); (2) connectivity with other health care providers to enhance access to the comprehensive view of a patient’s health history (e.g. using computerized workstations to determine medical history of the patient without having to ask past doctors for health care history and assessment); and (3) the ability to report their use of an EHR system to

EHRs are designed to reach out beyond the health organization that originally collects and compiles the information. They are built to share information with other health care providers, such as laboratories and specialists, so they contain information from all the clinicians involved in the patients care. Electronic health records minimizes errors than paper records, according to experts. Communication between physicians can be greatly improved with the use of EHR, allowing each party to access to a patient’s medical history rather than a snapshot-type overview from a current visit.(Seidman & Garrett,

Congress poured billions into EMR adoption, going so far as to budgeting “[…] $30 billion in incentives to stimulate the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) by eligible professionals and hospitals” in 2009 (Adler-Milstein, 2011). As technology becomes ever more ingrained in society, EMR use continues to grow.

The initial proposals defining meaningful use and defining the standards for certification of the EHR were published in the Federal Register on January 13, 2010, by CMS and ONC (Office of the National Coordinator) respectively, while the final rules for the certification criteria and for the EHR incentive programs were published on July 28, 2011. Collectively, this legislation establishes criteria for EHR certification, the metrics for meaningful use of a certified EHR, and a timeline for incentive payments that began in 2011. Requirements for the meaningful use of the EHR began to be implemented in three stages. In stage one, which began in 2011, the eligible providers (EPs) and eligible hospitals (EHs) were required to be able to collect and share patient data. Beginning in 2013, stage two necessitated meaningful use requirements to include

“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an

Hospitals meeting an AHCCCS-defined minimum number of discharges over the last 12-months (I don’t believe this is defined yet) and attesting that it’s EHR has the ability to exchange and use data from other systems will automatically qualify for payments in

Meaningful Use – the incentive program with the intention of helping physicians provide better care to their patients through financial rewards and punishments. Those Eligible professionals (EPs) who choose not to demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) are about to face a 1% penalty in their Medicare reimbursements. These penalties will increase by 1% each year until 2019 when they finally cap-off at 5%. And just to make it that much more aggravating, EPs won’t get away with a one-time demonstration, they must continue to demonstrate meaningful use each and every year through 2019 to avoid these penalties.

There are many ehr companies that offer EMR programs and their respective product capabilities. The AARP made it mandatory in 2009 for providers in the hospital to be eligible and make sure that hospital can demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records and met the criteria by 2015 or they will be subject to payment penalties. (Oachs, 2016). In today’s business, information technology is becoming more potent than ever; it is now evolving rapidly in the medical field as well. As the health information systems is on the rise, with the growing outlay of healthcare organizations in technology it is mandated that professionals gained the skills in health information. Healthcare is a unique and complex domain, which led to so

grant to aide in the implementation process. In 2008 Boston Medical Center was awarded a grant

With average rating above 3.5, the ratings of the reviewers placed this proposal among those that deserve further consideration for funding in this year's IUSE: EHR program competition. However, in view of the highly competitive nature of the program this year, I find that the proposed project lies below the quality of those for which funds are available because the proposal does not address the potential challenges of developing this low-cost environment and there were several important details that were not present in the proposal.