Incentive program details
Physicians who aren’t ready to attest to meaningful use may register online with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website,
www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/20_Registra tionandAttestation.asp, to begin one of the available EHR incentive programs. Medicaid incentive program physicians must also register through the Texas Medicaid & Healthcare Partnership website, www
.tmhp.com/Pages/HealthIT/HIT_EHR.aspx. Attestation for the Medicare electronic health record (EHR) in-
centive program is available online for physicians who have com- pleted 90 days of meaningful use. Medicaid doesn’t require program participants to attest until the
second year. In year one of participation with the Medicaid program, the physician has to attest to adoption, implementation, or upgrad- ing to a certified EHR system. Once a physician signs a contract with an EHR vendor and sched- ules the system’s launch to occur in 2011, the practice is eligible for the year-one Medicaid incentive of $21,250. For year two, the physi- cian must meet 90 days of meaningful use. Once the physician has fulfilled meaningful use for 90 days, the physician can then attest to receive the year-two payment of $8,500. The physician must attest to meaningful use for each full calendar year for the four subse- quent years to receive additional Medicaid incentive payments. Physicians who aren’t ready to attest should follow these five steps to participate in the EHR incentive programs:
1. View eligibility guidelines at
www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePro grams/
15_Eligibility.asp, and select the program in which you want to participate.
2. Use the services of the Texas regional extension centers (RECs),
www.texmed.org/rec. Federal grants aimed at primary care physi- cians lower the cost of consulting services to $300 per physician.
3. To receive incentive payments, make sure the EHR technology you’re using or are considering buying has been certified by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). Visit the ONC Certified EHR Technology webpage,
http://onc-chpl.force.com/ehrcert, for a list of certified products.
4. Be a meaningful user. 5. To receive your EHR incentive payment, you must attest through the secure CMS website that you’ve demonstrated meaningful use with certified EHR technology.
Once a physician attests and submits the information, CMS sends payment approximately four to six weeks later.
68 TEXAS MEDICINE August 2011
stetrician-gynecologists at Gynics Asso- ciates in Austin, received $21,500 each from the Medicaid EHR program. Gynics Associates purchased an EHR system in March after a two-year search for a product that fit the practice’s needs. The physicians and their partner, Ter- rence Kuhlmann, MD, plan to begin the EHR implementation process this month. At press time, Dr. Kuhlmann was in the process of meeting 90 days of meaning- ful use requirements to qualify for the Medicare EHR incentive payment. Gynics Associates signed up for the
services of the CentrEast REC after pur- chasing an EHR system. A REC repre- sentative toured the practice to examine workflow, which will inevitably have to be modified to accommodate the EHR system’s capabilities. The physicians say the REC will assist with that task and with the EHR implementation. Dr. Wilson says the practice spent $55,000 on the EHR system and re- ceived a price break from the vendor for being a member of the CentrEast REC. “Membership in the REC pays for itself.
We will continue to rely on them to help us with implementation and with mean- ingful use criteria,” Dr. Wilson said.
Incentives help cover EHR costs Denise Casper, DO, a Bridgeport fam- ily physician who practices with two other doctors, received $18,000 from the Medicare incentive program. Her practice first purchased an EHR system in 2005 but implemented a new system last September. She estimates the system cost $80,000.
The practice commissioned a local in- formation technology (IT) company to help with implementation.
She says completing 90 days of mean- ingful use to qualify for the incentive payment presented some challenges. “It was hard to remember to docu- ment everything we do and to check off all the appropriate boxes. We also had to change how we record the data so we can run the necessary reports and moni- tor them,” she said. Dr. Casper says encouraging physi- cians to purchase and adopt EHRs is a massive endeavor made more tolerable by the availability of federal incentives.
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