Foothold Technology has answers to all of the questions you have about Meaningful Use and qualifying for ARRA Incentives. If you have additional questions, please contact us.Where did it come from?
>The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Stimulus Bill) included a subsection called HiTECH which provides funds to incentivize hospitals and doctors to purchase and implement an electronic medical record. >To determine whether a provider or hospital has implemented such a system, and thus qualified to receive the incentive, the government created a concept called Meaningful Use. Not included in the Recovery Act were behavioral health providers, including alcohol and substance abuse and mental health services as well as other non-physical healthcare providers. To rectify this omission, Congress introduced two bills (HR 5040 and S3709) aimed at specifically making these providers eligible for Medicaid incentives. However, each eligible nurse or doctor working in behavioral healthcare organizations is eligible for incentive payments. >Not all doctors and nurses are eligible and if they work for more than one org, only ONE of those orgs can “access” their incentive payment. What are the Incentives (Medicare)? > The Medicare EHR Incentive Program will provide incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and CAHs (critical access hospitals) that demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology.
What are the Incentives (Medicaid)
Who is Eligible? Eligibility for Individual Providers – Eligible Professionals The incentive payments for EPs are based on individual providers. If you are part of a practice, each EP may qualify for an incentive payment if each EP successfully demonstrates meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Each EP is only eligible for one incentive payment per year, regardless of how many practices or locations at which he or she provide services. Hospital-based EPs are not eligible for incentive payments. An EP is considered hospital-based if 90% or more of his or her services are performed in a hospital inpatient or emergency room setting. Medicare: Medicaid: EP must meet one of the following criteria: So, What Do I Have to Do? Exclusions Meaningful Use Core Measures: 1-151 Meaningful Use Menu Set Measures: 1-101 Eligible Professional – Patient Requirements Any eligible professional demonstrating meaningful use must have at least 50% of their of their patient encounters during the EHR reporting period at a practice/location or practices/locations equipped with certified EHR technology capable of meeting all of the meaningful use objectives. Therefore, States should collect information on meaningful users’ practice locations in order to validate this requirement in an audit. Patient volume: Eligible professionals may choose one (or more) clinical sites of practice in order to calculate their patient volume. This calculation does not need to be across all of an eligible professional’s sites of practice. However, at least one of the locations where the eligible professional is adopting or meaningfully using certified EHR technology should be included in the patient volume. In other words, if an eligible professional practices in two locations, one with certified EHR technology and one without, the eligible professional should include the patient volume at least at the site that includes the certified EHR technology. When making an individual patient volume calculation (i.e., not using the group/clinic proxy option), a professional may calculate across all practice sites, or just at the one site. Resources > Certifiers: > Overseers: > Regional Extension Centers: > Registration & Attestation: All Core Measures, How measured, reported, exclusions: 1Texas Medical Association. http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=20754
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