The reorganization of funding for our broken health care system has taken some interesting turns. ”Interesting” meaning “costly”.
Incentives offered for meaningful use of the electronic medical record could make the difference between survival and failure for a number of Health & Human Service provider agencies. More interesting news: the Meaningful Use incentives plummet in value after 2011, as the efficiencies, quality enhancement and patient safety measures start to pay off.
It’s tough to get ahead these days.
The Meaningful Use world is rife with acronyms: CMS, ONC, HIT, HITECH, PHSA and EHR to bring up a few. The EP is the Eligible Professional, and as I currently understand, the EPs who write prescriptions can be a godsend by making licensed Community Mental Health Centers eligible to participate in receiving Medicaid and Medicare funding that could amount to millions of dollars a year, depending on the size of the organization (CMHC inclusion is being drafted as you read this, and isn’t included at this time). Each EP could mean $100,000 or so in incentives through the five year program. There are rules and stipulations creating stumbling blocks, but this is the short story.
Meaningful Use incentive details are still being settled, moving at the speed of government and likely won’t give providers any breathing room to organize the agency and take advantage of the incentives once the dust settles on the rulemaking level. The aspect of Meaningful Use incentives that is certain is that provider agencies should be moving fast. • Get ready to institute the Meaningful Use criteria in 2011 and be collecting data for the whole year: 2010 could be a busy year • Get ready in 2012 to use the data you’ve collected to improve quality because in 2013 you’ll need to prove you’re making a difference in the care provided, and need to share electronic patient health data with others providing shared care responsibility for patients • In 2015, Stage three begins. Get ready to prove the improvements all this has meant.
As I uncover more details about how Meaningful Use incentives work, I’ll let you know. One thing’s for sure, it’s a lot of work, and you may need help. That’s why I’m here.
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