“Incentive dollars will soften the blow of retooling the practice infrastructure.”
Dr. Weidmann adds that the clinic’s
physicians will continue working to meet the meaningful use requirements, quali- fying for $44,000 per eligible physician over the course of the Medicare incen- tive program.
“Incentive dollars will soften the blow
of retooling the practice infrastructure. We view the advancing meaningful use criteria as personal and group challeng- es that are good for day-to-day patient care. Meaningful use is a critical piece of transparent, integrated, efficient health care for Americans. We are proud to be leading the charge,” Dr. Weidmann said.
percent Medicaid patient volume can receive up to $63,750 over six years in incentive payments from 2011 to 2021. Non-hospital-based eligible pediatricians with at least 20-percent Medicaid patient volume could receive up to $42,500 dur- ing the same period. If you haven’t registered for one of the incentive programs, it’s not too late. The last year physicians may begin using an EHR to qualify for the incentive pay- ments is 2014 for the Medicare program and 2016 for the Medicaid program. Payments will continue until 2016 for Medicare and 2021 for Medicaid. (See “Incentive Program Details,” page 68.) Dr. Weidmann says the clinic’s transi- tion to an EHR has many benefits. “Our practice clearly saw a return on investment 18 months after deploy- ment of the EHR. Practice expansion, increased services, and more proactive patient care blossomed after three years as the patient database and feedback matured. We have committed meaning- ful use proceeds to the practice’s basic
infrastructure as well as retooling of some aging hardware,” he said. South Austin Medical Clinic commit- ted $200,000 to a project to incorporate a comprehensive EHR and office system. Since late 2002, the office has been
95-percent paperless for all physicians, staff members, patient functions, and outgoing data. Dr. Weidmann says the integrated EHR has revolutionized bill- ing and collections. Major improvements include:
• Appropriate evaluation and manage- ment coding increased. Before imple- menting the EHR system, the clinic typically undercoded visits.
• Miscellaneous charge capture by physicians and clinical staff is more efficient, and audits are more easily completed.
• Average charges per visit increased from $65.64 in 2000 to $83.30 in 2004, with little change in the fee schedule.
• Average reimbursement per visit increased from $56.46 in 2000 to $66.80 in 2004, even with declining fee schedules.
Eric Weidmann, MD
Christopher Wilson, MD
66 TEXAS MEDICINE August 2011 April Harris, MD
• Time from date of service to collection decreased from 72 days to 41 days on average across all payers.
RECs at your service Earlier this year, South Austin Medical Clinic signed up with the CentrEast Re- gional Extension Center (REC) for help with attestation, workflow redesign, and staffing. “We foresee substantial need for the REC to help with further process review, teaching, and retraining for the more difficult Phase 2 meaningful use criteria. Since much of the process resides in the software and varieties of user choices, I expect CentrEast REC to gain insight and share ideas that are common across EHR vendors,” Dr. Weidmann said. CMS will announce Phase 2 mean-
ingful use criteria Dec. 21. To receive timely, authoritative information about the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incen- tive programs, including registration and attestation updates, and details about the payment process, subscribe to the CMS listserv,
www.cms.gov/EHRIncen tivePrograms/65_CMS_EHR_Listserv .asp#TopOfPage. The Texas RECs charge primary care physicians an annual subscription fee of $300 per physician for technical consult- ing services valued at more than $5,000. Specialists who can attest to providing primary care services are also eligible to receive REC consulting services at the subsidized rate. Specialists interested in receiving ser- vices should contact their REC for pric- ing information. If a specialist is ineligi- ble to receive subsidized-rate consulting, the REC can customize some services based on the needs of the practice. To identify the REC serving your region and
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