Health IT Law Blog : Health IT Law Blog : Post & Schell: Law Firm : HIT & Electronic Health Records

HHS announced today that the government intends to make it easier for healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records (EHRs).  As part of this initiative, HHS decided to extend the deadline for meeting Stage 2 of Meaningful Use until 2014. Via HHS press release:

Under the current requirements, eligible doctors and hospitals that begin participating in the Medicare EHR (electronic health record) Incentive Programs this year would have to meet new standards for the program in 2013. If they did not participate in the program until 2012, they could wait to meet these new standards until 2014 and still be eligible for the same incentive payment. To encourage faster adoption, the Secretary announced that HHS intends to allow doctors and hospitals to adopt health IT this year, without meeting the new standards until 2014.

HHS also trumpeted the results of a CDC survey which found that more than half of U.S. physicians plan to take advantage of the EHR incentive program, and that the rate of EHR adoption doubled between 2008 and 2011, from 17% to 34% among physicians.

Of course, HHS did not comment on how low those numbers are. The fact remains that about two-thirds of U.S. physicians have not adopted electronic health records, and continue to use, in Secretary's words, the same technology as Hippocrates. The Obama administration is relying heavily on Regional Extension Centers and training efforts in order to aid healthcare enterprises in adopting EHRs.

We will update this post with links to any relevant regulations if and/or when HHS publishes them in the Federal Register.

"We Can't Wait: Obama Administration takes new steps to encourage doctors and hospitals to use health information technology to lower costs, improve quality, create jobs," HHS press release (November 30, 2011).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

HHS released the first numbers regarding its Meaningful Use incentives program, established by the HITECH Act of 2009. Unsurprisingly, most eligible professionals and hospitals receiving funds this year qualified for incentive payments under Medicaid, rather than Medicare, because Medicare has a higher threshold for receiving such payments. Medicare requires the eligible professional or hospital to achieve and demonstrate meaningful use, while Medicaid mandates only adoption, implementation or upgrade of existing systems. 

Nevertheless, the extent of the disparity was somewhat surprising: only about 6% of eligible hospitals and 3% of eligible professionals qualified for meaningful use incentives under Medicare.  Via Modern Healthcare:

So far, Medicaid program payments for hospitals, physicians and other eligible professionals that have adopted, implemented or upgraded to a certified EHR system have totaled $389 million. Only $264 million has been paid under the Medicare program, which has a higher eligibility threshold, requiring providers to demonstrate that they are meaningfully using their certified EHR system.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Government Health IT published a column by Steve Fox and yours truly on the critical role Regional Extension Centers (RECs) can and should play in distributing best practices regarding contracting for health IT systems, including EHRs.  Via Government Health IT:

RECs have the potential to serve as a valuable resource, especially for remote and underserved paper-based primary practices. However, RECs could be doing a disservice to physicians by failing to advise or provide them with essential EMR contract negotiation skills.

With HITECH Act incentives expiring in just a few years, healthcare providers will likely get only one chance to qualify for the full amount of the incentive payments. Thus, successful implementation and operation of an EMR system by the selected health IT vendor becomes critical to each healthcare organization trying to achieve “meaningful use” and take advantage of the incentive program.

In this environment, strong and effective contracts between healthcare providers and health IT vendors is especially significant, because such agreements can provide adequate protections, safeguards and other rights for the provider-customer, in the event a vendor defaults or otherwise fails to perform to the provider’s satisfaction.

You can read the full column by clicking here.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

CMS launched a very useful Web site, http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentiveprograms, providing an overview of the Medicaid and Medicare incentive payment programs established by the HITECH Act.  The site provides up-to-date, detailed information and many important links and "fact sheets" about the incentive programs, including overviews of CMS's final rule on meaningful use, the scope of the incentives program, and a Frequently Asked Questions section.  

It is definitely worth saving or bookmarking this site, so that you can check back in easily for regular updates.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

As required in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that it plans to integrate the quality reporting requirements for physicians' Medicare payments with reporting requirements for healthcare providers who achieve meaningful use under the HITECH Act.  Via Healthcare IT News:

Under the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), physicians who participate in Medicare can receive incentives for reporting various quality measures, a select number of which are aimed at those who want to report using EHRs.

Providers who become meaningful users of EHRs, as laid down by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will also be eligible for incentive payments. A final rule on that is expected soon.

CMS has requested public comment on how it should integrate the two programs, included within a proposed rule about changes in Medicare physician payments for 2011 CMS expects to publish the proposed rule July 13.

"In an effort to align PQRI with the EHR incentive program, we propose to include many ARRA core clinical quality measures in the PQRI program, to demonstrate meaningful use of EHR and quality of care furnished to individuals," the proposed rule says.

Meaningful use measures that physicians could use for PQRI reporting through electronic health records include such things as blood pressure measurement for hypertension, body mass index screening and prevention care follow up, and drugs to be avoided in the elderly, according to CMS.

You can find a copy of the proposed rule here.

"CMS to two align quality reporting programs," Healthcare IT News (June 29, 2010).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

By popular demand, here is the video of David Pogue's report on the Obama Administration's efforts to digitize patient records in the U.S. 

Watch CBS News Videos Online

"Charting a New Course," CBS News (September 13, 2009).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

On September 15, 2009, the HIT Standards Committee endorsed a set of privacy and security standards for electronic health record systems. 
These standards will be recommended to Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, as a basis for establishing the privacy and security criteria for, inter alia, "certified EHR technology" as defined under the HITECH Act.  Eligible healthcare providers must meet the criteria for "meaningful use" of "certified EHR technology" in order to qualify for significant incentives available under the HITECH Act.

The committee’s Privacy and Security Workgroup included access control, authentication, authorization and transmission of health data among the requirements that electronic health record systems must include by 2011 in order to meet the definition of "certified EHR technology."   Specifically for 2011, the Standards Committee approved the Workgroup's recommendation to require certified products to provide the capabilities necessary to support the HIPAA and ARRA security and privacy requirements and best practices for “meaningful use.”  The endorsed privacy and security standards will become more rigorous in 2013 and 2015.

You can find the spreadsheet of endorsed privacy and security standards here.

You can also view the presentation from the Workgroup here.

"Federal panel okays EHR security, privacy standards," Government Health IT (September 15, 2009).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link