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"Meaningful use" will strengthen physician practices
Physicians looking at federal government efforts to encourage use of electronic health records (EHRs) may wonder whether the strings attached to the incentives will result in new bureaucratic obstacles. Will the requirements and new technologies really help physicians enhance patient care and manage their practices more efficiently? Last December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued much anticipated guidelines for implementing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provisions that incent physicians to install and use EHRs. ARRA includes up to $44,000 in Medicare incentive payments over five years to eligible physicians who meet meaningful use criteria for integrating EHRs into their practices. ARRA also imposes escalating penalties for noncompliance after the end of the five-year period, in the form of reduced Medicare reimbursement rates. Although many physicians are aware of the ARRA incentives and the recently published guidelines for meaningful use, Steve Tolle, senior vice president of physician solutions at Ingenix, believes many are so consumed by the day-to-day demands of their practices that they have yet to fully realize how the technology and these guidelines will affect them. As currently drafted, the meaningful use standards are aggressive, but "very well thought out, patient-centric and largely take into consideration the dynamics of a real physician office," according to Kim LaFontana, vice president of strategic initiatives at Ingenix. Click here to continue reading this article online. Blank(3/9) |
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