Urgent Deadline Approaching – Medicare Reimbursement at Risk!

Urgent Deadline Approaching – Medicare Reimbursement at Risk!

February 29, 2012 – Deadline to Register for Maximum Payments from EHR Incentive Program

By now, most physicians and hospitals are aware of the EHR Incentive Program offered by the U. S. Government as part of the HITECH Act. The EHR Incentive Program provides compensation to medical professionals and hospitals as they adopt and implement EHR technology in their facilities. These incentive programs are offered to help off-set the cost for practitioners as well as to give them an incentive to utilize an EHR system.¹ Eligible hospitals or physicians must successfully demonstrate "meaningful use" of an EHR system for a consecutive 90-day period in their first year of participation and for a full year in each subsequent year to participate in the program and receive incentive payments. To receive the maximum payments in the Medicare segment of the program, up to $44,000, practitioners must register by February 29, 2012. Practitioners can register after February 29, but because payments are made on a sliding scale based on participation start date, they will only be eligible for 4 years of incentive payments or less. Eligible professionals who do not successfully demonstrate meaningful use or become "EHR compliant" by 2014 will lose federal subsidies and be penalized with diminished Medicare payments. The direct link to begin registration for the EHR Incentive Program is https://ehrincentives.cms.gov/hitech/login.action

Connected Medical Devices Will Be Required

Proving meaningful use to receive incentive payments means meeting a series of objectives and measures as outlined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Part of the meaningful use criteria states that vital signs, such as height, weight and BMI must be electronically recorded into the patient’s EHR. Therefore, healthcare professionals will have to closely examine their workflow systems, verifying which of their vital signs measurement devices have EHR connectivity capabilities. The devices that have connectivity capabilities must be interfaced with the EHR system so that measured data can be electronically transmitted. If a device does not have any options to connect to the EHR system, a new device with connectivity capabilities will have to be purchased.

 1 - http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/