Operating Officer Kathy Mechler says it is still working on a sustainability model but plans to “continue to help physicians achieve meaningful use and move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and beyond.” Looking to the future, Mr. Alverson
says the North Texas REC anticipates continuing a close relationship with ONC and CMS, actively promoting EHR adoption among medical practices, and assisting in the effective integration of those EHRs with clinician workflows. “The overall trend is clear: Get EHRs in place at physician practices and hos- pitals, share EHR data through health information exchange, and adopt im- proved practices based upon research and analyses. North Texas REC will be there at each stage to advise physicians,” he said. In the long run, the North Texas REC
and its parent organization, the Dallas- FortWorth Hospital Council Foundation, anticipate building a physician data ana- lytics program, according to Mr. Alver- son. The program would help physicians understand and meet meaningful use and clinical quality reporting measures by giving them a sort of dashboard that identifies areas of improvement as well as emerging best practices.
ful use requirements and receive a pay- ment for program year two, log into your account on the Texas Medicaid Health- care Partnership (TMHP) website, www
.tmhp.com/Pages/default.aspx, scroll to Manage Provider Account, and click on the Texas Medicaid EHR Incentive Pro- gram link. The TMHP website also has these resources:
• Getting Started With Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs;
• Frequently Asked EHR Questions; • Meaningful Use and Clinical Quality Measures: Eligible Professionals; and
• CMS EHR Incentive Program Over- view,
http://go.cms.gov/J5EAL9.
Email
HealthIT@tmhp.com, or call
(800) 925-9126, option 4, if you have questions. The Texas Medical Association’s Tex-
as Regional Extension Center Resource Center,
www.texmed.org/rec, offers in- formation you need on services the re- gional extension centers provide. Visit the resource center for details on loca- tion, eligibility, and contact information. If you have questions about these
health information technology (HIT) tools and resources or if you need ad- ditional help, contact the TMA HIT Helpline at (800) 880-5720, or email
HIT@texmed.org.
Medicaid opens meaningful use portal
If you participate in the Texas Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive program and have successfully attested to first-year requirements, you may be- gin attesting to receive 2012 Stage 1 meaningful use incentives. You must certify patient volume, eli-
gibility, and other program requirements for each year of participation. To be eli- gible, physicians must have 30-percent Medicaid patient volume (20 percent for pediatricians). Starting with the second year of participation, you must annu- ally attest to meeting meaningful use requirements. To attest to meeting Stage 1 meaning-
Medicine protests new meaningful use rules
The Texas Medical Association, the American Medical Association, and oth- er state and national medical societies believe the government’s proposed new rules for Stage 2 of the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs are too aggressive. In a May letter to Marilyn Tavenner,
acting director of the Centers for Medi- care & Medicaid Services (CMS), they said they share the Obama administra- tion’s goal of widespread EHR adop- tion, but worry the criteria will actually
June 2012 TEXAS MEDICINE 35
discourage physicians from joining the program.
“Changes to the meaningful use pro- gram including the proposed Stage 2 criteria and penalty programs are neces- sary to ensure that the meaningful use program lives up to its intended purpose — to help physicians adopt, implement, and meaningfully use EHRs,” they wrote. The letter makes several recommen- dations, including:
• Evaluate Stage 1 to form the final Stage 2 requirements.
• Include reasonable exclusions and factor in relevancy in the measure for meeting meaningful use.
• Only use measures within a physi- cian’s control.
• A good-faith effort to meet the mea- sures in Stage 2 should count toward incentives.
• The Medicare and Medicaid mean- ingful use program rules should ap- ply only to Medicare and Medicaid patient populations.
• Meaningful use and other penalty programs should not be back-dated, and several exemption categories should be established.
• Do more to synchronize the multiple health information technology pro- grams.
• Establish an appeals process under both the meaningful use and e-pre- scribing programs.
The proposed rules, posted at http://
go.cms.gov/vZOuI0, detail expectations for physicians. The proposed rules focus on using EHRs to improve health and health care while reducing the burden on physicians and hospitals where possible. CMS says it will release the final Stage 2 meaningful use requirements later this summer. n
Crystal Conde is associate editor of Texas Medicine. You can reach her by telephone at (800) 880-1300, ext. 1385, or (512) 370-1385; by fax at (512) 370-1629; or by email at
crystal.conde@
texmed.org.
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