use requirements and receive a payment for program year two. (See “Medicaid Opens Meaningful Use Portal,” page 35.) Susan McBride, RN, PhD, senior advi- sor for the West Texas REC, says more than 500 physician participants there are well on their way to meeting Stage 1 Medicaid and Medicare meaningful use criteria.
Because the payer mix in West Texas is Medicaid- and Medicare-heavy, Dr. McBride explains, many of the region’s physicians stand to benefit from achiev- ing meaningful use.
One such physician is Beverly Nixon-
Lewis, DO, regional chief medical infor- mation officer for Texas Tech Univer- sity Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Medicine and a West Texas REC participant.
She said the medical school is part of the REC “because of the wealth of in- formation it has garnered and because the university knew the REC would be able to get our EHR fully functional in a meaningful way.” Dr. Nixon-Lewis adds the REC helped the school enroll eligible practitioners in Medicaid and analyze risks to its com- puter system.
“The REC has been a valuable infor- mation resource for our campus on in- terpretation of meaningful use objective measures and sorting out our complicat- ed workflows. Most importantly, the REC is simply a call or email away,” she said. Fifty-seven TTUHSC eligible practitio- ners adopted, implemented, or upgraded to an EHR and earned $1.2 million un- der the Medicaid incentive program. Dr. Nixon-Lewis says those practitioners are now achieving 90 days of meaningful use in the Medicaid incentive program. The institution also plans to register 10 more physicians in the program this year. “We are looking at another $500,000 in incentive payments this year,” Dr. Nix- on-Lewis said. As the school moves forward with meeting Stage 2 and, eventually, Stage 3 meaningful use measures, Dr. Nixon- Lewis envisions the West Texas REC con- tinuing to be a valuable resource. It’s not too late for physicians to reg- ister for one of the incentive programs. The last year physicians may begin us-
ing an EHR to qualify for the incentive payments is 2014 for the Medicare pro- gram and 2016 for Medicaid. Payments will continue until 2016 for Medicare and 2021 for Medicaid. (See “Meaning- ful Dollars,” August 2011 Texas Medicine, pages 65–69, or access the article on the TMA website at
www.texmed.org/mean ingfuldollars/.)
REC pricing
Thanks to federal funding, the RECs have been able to offer $5,000 in con- sulting services for $300 to primary care physicians and to other specialists who attest to providing primary care services. REC services include:
• EHR implementation and project management;
• Health information technology educa- tion and training;
• Guidance with electronic prescribing; • Vendor selection and financial consul- tation;
• Practice and workflow redesign; • Privacy and security compliance edu- cation;
• Meaningful use analysis, tracking, and monitoring;
• Assistance in meeting meaningful use requirements for CMS incentives;
• Collaboration with state and national health information exchanges; and
• Ongoing technical assistance. Once the RECs meet their enrollment
goals, however, they’re no longer able to offer the $300 subsidized rate. The North Texas and Gulf Coast RECs had in- stituted new, increased pricing structures for services at press time. Joseph Schneider, MD, MBA, chair of
TMA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Health In- formation Technology, says even though the federal subsidies for the RECs will not be available, physicians who enroll will receive “tremendous value” for their money. “The RECs are very knowledgeable about the EHR incentive programs and what physicians need to do to qualify. As meaningful use becomes more complex in stages 2 and 3, the value provided by the RECs will only increase,” Dr. Schnei- der said. Among its achievements, the Gulf Coast REC surpassed its enrollment goal of 2,200 members and boasts more than 2,500 enrolled physicians. It now charges primary care physicians and oth- er specialists $500 to enroll and access training. In addition, they pay $125 per hour for consulting services.
TMA ADVANTAGE TMA meets your HIT needs
TMA has numerous health information technology (HIT) re- sources to help you successfully navigate the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs. TMA’s EHR Implementation Guide, EHR Product Comparison Tool (TMA member login required), Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Comparison, EHR incentive eligibility tool, and Medi- care and Medicaid incentive program instructions are available on the HIT site,
www.texmed.org/hit. If you have questions about the EHR incentive programs,
contact the TMA HIT helpline at (800) 880-5720 or email HIT@
texmed.org.
June 2012 TEXAS MEDICINE 33
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