EHR Incentives - Act Now!

The HITECH act provides incentive payments for:

• $44,000‐$64,000 per physician over 5 years
• Beginning in 2011 thru Medicare ($44,000) or Medicaid ($64,000)
• To physicians who have deployed an utilized a “meaningful” EHR

You must act now to receive full reimbursement. In order to qualify for reimbursement physicians must:  d the Certification Committee for as the agency.

• Adopt a certified EHR. It is widely expecteHealth  Demon Information Technology (CCHIT) will be chosen as the agency.
• Demonstrate “meaningful use of the EHR
  • Successfully submit PQRI measures to Medicare
  • Adopt ePrescribing
  • Connect to other entities to exchange information electronically

Projected incentives (based on total Medicare payments)

• Year 2011: $15,000
• Year 2012: $12,000
• Year 2013: $8,000
• Year 2014: $4,000
• Year 2015: $2,000
• Penalties start in year 2015 with reductions in the Medicare fee schedule for non EHR providers.
• Total incentives: $44,000 based on Medicare fees. (note: up to $64,000 will be available for physicians reimbursed by Medicaid g in 2011 base on state defined guidelines)

Current incentives:

• 2010‐11; ePrescribing 2% of Medicare fees up to $5,000 per year
• 2010‐11; PQRI reporting 2% of Medicare fees up to $5,000 per year
• Total $20,000

Bottom line, each day you delay implementing an EHR, you will be losing these incentivebased revenues. Worse, incentives then turn to penalties for not being on an EHR solution by October 1, 2015 as a reduction in your Medicare fee schedule. Early adopter benefit the most as 70% of the incentives are “front loaded” paying in the first two years. Reimbursement is not based on how much you spend on health information technology. Rather it is based on your Medicare or Medicaid payments. aximum reimbursement can create a surplus for your practice!

What you need to be doing now:

• Submit PQRI measures (go to AOA web site for details) service)
• Start web based ePrescribing (Google ePrescribing to find a /or future EHR vendor
• Evaluate your current and Select or change EHR vendors based on CCHIT certification.
• Train staff and providers
• Deploy EHR by 2010 to give enough time to submit PQRI and ePrescribing for fast and full reimbursement in 2011. It is widely expected that it will take a year of PQRI and EPrescribing reporting to demonstrate “meaningful deployment”. It won’t be enough to simply purchase and deploy EHR for reimbursement!

If you currently utilize a quality EHR you are ahead of the pack. Congratulations, less that 20% of physicians have adopted EHR. Stay in contact with your EHR vendor to monitor their progress on CCHIT certification. Currently no eye care EHR’s are CCHIT certified but several are “compliant”. The eye care specifications are soon to be released for CCHIT certification but if your vendor is not currently capable of submitting PQRI, ePrescribing and CCHIT “compliant” then you need to be looking for another vendor. Now! Changing EHR’s to adopt a CCHIT certified roduct will be worth it.

If you don’t currently utilize a quality EHR the time to act is now! The congressional budget office projects 90% of physicians will be utilizing EHR in a few years. Less than 20% currently utilize EHR suggesting the majority of physicians will be moving to EHR at the same time. It is my opinion the industry will not be capable of handling the mass entrance of EHR adopters in the next 2 years. My advice is to select and deploy an established reputable EHR vendor within the next few months that you feel is most likely to be CCHIT certified in sufficient time. Waiting longer may result in delays, frustration and reduced incentive payments. You can find help for practice hardware and software deployment on my technology eployment website at www.EyeTechnologyForFree.com .

“Our recovery plan with invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, and save lives.”
-President Obama

Technology deployment won’t be easy but there has never been a better opportunity for reimbursement of the high costs of hardware, software and human resources necessary. The time has finally arrived for the technology integrated ractice and the time for deployment is NOW!

Kim Castleberry, OD
CEO; Plano Eye Associates.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.PlanoEye.com
www.EyeCodingForFree.com


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