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EMR Stimulus

The HITECH Act poors $19 billion into healthcare funding to help physicians adopt better information technology standards. To qualify for your share, which is up to $44,000 or $64,000, you must use certified EMR technology and demonstrate “meaningful use.” 20/20 MD takes care of half of that by providing you with certified EMR technology for free. If you are an eligible professional, all you have to do is meet the meaningful use requirements. There are two provisions under which you can qualify: Medicare and Medicaid.

Under the Medicare provision, you can receive up to $44,000 over a 5 year period. Eligible professionals under the Medicare provision include: a doctor of medicine or osteopathy, a doctor of dentistry or dental medicine, a doctor of optometry, and a chiropractor. Your payment will be equivalent to 75% of your Medicare Part B billings up to $44,000.

Under the Medicaid provision, you can receive up to $64,000 over a 6 year period. Eligible professionals under the Medicare provision include: a doctor of medicine or osteopathy, a doctor of dentistry or dental medicine, a doctor of optometry, and a chiropractor. Your payment will be equivalent to 85% of the annual cost for your EMR (including training and support). In order to qualify, at least 30% of your claims must be attributed to Medicaid.

What is meaningful use of a certified EMR?

A certified EMR is one that has all of the qualities deemed necessary by the Secretary. You can rest assured that the EMR you are set up with will possess all of those qualities and more. All you need to do is use our system "meaningfully."

There are three stages of Meaningful Use. The first stage, which lasts until the end of 2012, has been finalized and the requirements are listed below. There are two sets of requirements, a core set and a menu set. Under the core set, all stipulations must be met. Under the menu set, an eligible professional may choose to defer up to 5.

Core Set (must meet all)

  1. Use of CPOE (computerized physician order entry)
  2. Drug-drug and drug-allergy checks
  3. ePrescribing
  4. Record patient demographics
  5. Maintain up to date problem list with current and active diagnoses
  6. Maintain active medication list
  7. Maintain active allergy list
  8. Record and chart changes in vital signs
  9. Record smoking status (age 13+)
  10. Implement at least one clinical decision support rule (must be relevant to specialty or of high clinical priority.
  11. Report ambulatory quality measures to CMS or the States
  12. Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information (upon request)
  13. Provide clinical summaries to patients for each visit
  14. Exchange key clinical information
  15. Protect electronic health information created or maintained by the EHR technology

Menu Set (may defer up to 5, but must meet at least one of the bold requirements.

  1. Implement drug-formulary checks
  2. Incorporate clinical lab-test results into EHR as structured data
  3. Generate lists of patients by specific conditions
  4. Send reminders to patients as per patient preference for follow up care
  5. Provide patients with timely electronic access to their health information
  6. Use EHR to provide patient education if appropriate
  7. Perform medication reconciliation for patients transitioned into your care (if applicable)
  8. Provide summary of care for referrals
  9. Submit electronic data to immunization registries
  10. Submit electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies.