Meaningful use and quality improvement by Shannon Vogel
T
he Texas Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical
Education to provide continuing medi- cal education for physicians. TMA des- ignates this enduring activity for a maxi- mum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. This course has been designated by the Texas Medi- cal Association for 1 credit of education in medical ethics and/or professional re- sponsibility. This credit is available from Aug. 8, 2013, to Aug. 8, 2016.
Disclosure of commercial affiliations Policies and standards of the American Medical Association and the Accredita- tion Council for Continuing Medical Ed- ucation require authors and planners for continuing medical education activities to disclose any significant financial in- terests, relationships, or affiliations they have with commercial entities whose products, devices, or services may be discussed. They also must disclose dis- cussion of investigational or unlabeled uses of a product.
The content of this material does not
relate to any product of commercial in- terest; therefore, there are no relevant financial relationships to disclose.
Learning objectives Upon completion of this publication, participants should be able to:
1. Summarize meaningful use and eli- gibility for federal electronic health
record (EHR) incentives through the Medicare and Medicaid programs;
2. Discuss the quality of care, patient safety, and efficiency benefits of an EHR; and
3. Explain potential for quality im- provement through EHR quality reports, patient engagement, and care coordination.
About the author Shannon Vogel is director of the Texas Medical Association’s Health Informa- tion Technology Department. TMA has been advocating for and educating phy- sicians about the adoption of health information technology (HIT)
since
creating a dedicated HIT department in January 2006 under Ms. Vogel’s direc- tion. Guided by a physician committee on HIT that meets three times annually, TMA provides physicians relevant edu- cation, guidance, and resources.
Audience
This course is appropriate for physicians, nonphysician practitioners, and office staff in all specialties.
CME instructions 1. Read the course in its entirety. It is available online at
www.texmed.org/ meaningfuluse.
2. Complete the online post-test with a minimum 70-percent passing score and the evaluation.
3. CME credit will be recorded upon completion of the test. Documenta- tion will be sent to the reader’s email inbox, or you can print it directly from the website.
4. Direct questions or concerns to the TMA Education Center at (877) 880- 1335 or
support@inreachce.com.
The stimulus for health information technology The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HI- TECH) Act, enacted under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, promotes adoption of health informa- tion technology (HIT) throughout the health care industry. It offers physicians who treat Medicare or Medicaid patients monetary incentives to adopt and mean- ingfully use an interoperable electronic health record (EHR) system. Incentive payments for Texas physicians exceed $300 million and continue to grow. The HITECH Act also brought signifi- cant grant funding to Texas. The follow- ing grants total $91.7 million:
• $38 million for four regional exten- sion centers (RECs),
• $28.8 million for health information exchanges (HIEs),
• $15 million for Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects,*
• $5.4 million for HIT workforce edu- cation, and
• $4.5 million for Medicaid HIT plan- ning.
The Office of the National Coordina- tor for HIT oversees activities related to the HITECH Act.
*The Strategic Health IT Advanced Re- search Projects program, under the auspices of the Office of the National
February 2014 TEXAS MEDICINE 49
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