There are three stages in proving Meaningful Use of your EHR to the Office of the National Coordinator and CMS in order to receive Medicare and Medicaid incentives amounting to around $100,000 per provider over a five year period.
Stage 1: In my MU 1 post, I shared this needs to be addressed in 2011. That means getting ready this year, and the year’s 25% gone, and depending on where you are in your evolution to the EHR and how your vendor responds, it could be a big job.
Next year your EHR will need to be not only collecting the demographics and services rendered that are usually in place for billing purposes, but also tracking and electronically communicating patient clinical matters (like assessments, treatment plans, notes and medications). Moreover, you will need to be using your EHR for clinical decision support.
Stage 2: In 2013 the EHR will need to expand into areas like order entry for medication and other practitioners orders. This is a big concern; a number of software vendors in our sector are just getting around to developing these modules, and they can be clunky for the users in their first iterations. The system will need to provide electronic transmissions of data like using approved formats for labs, pharmacy and other ancillary services used in patient care.
Stage 3: On a national scale, elements of healthcare come into the spotlight on a regular basis. Beginning in 2015, these concerns will need to be tracked. The EHR will also need to expand to include quality improvement (and proof thereof), and provide patient access like the portals you see in Microsoft Health Vault and Google Health. Software vendors have been developing these tools for patient use for a while, and that development has already expanded into our sector.
It’s only rocket science, and we’ve done that.
Contact me if you need help.
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