also holds EHR vendors responsible for quickly addressing problems that need immediate attention,” Dr. Schneider wrote.
In the letter, TMA expressed frustra- tion over the federal government’s in- adequate response to the association’s call to establish a robust EHR reporting mechanism. The CentrEast Regional Extension Center developed such a re- source with its EHR Support Center,
http://ehrsupport.centreastrec.org. The online adverse event reporting tool gives physicians a place to submit EHR prob- lems and to share successful techniques that improve EHR use. Dr. Schneider en- courages physicians to use that site to report EHR problems.
Rules could affect vendors ONC says EHR technology certified to meet the 2014 certification criteria will support Stage 2 meaningful use incen- tive program rules. TMA worries some of
the more than 1,200 certified EHR ven- dors could close rather than seek recer- tification or could discontinue products. “We’re already seeing vendors with multiple products saying they’re not go- ing to support one of the products,” Dr. Schneider said. Dr. Murray predicts EHR vendors who
don’t have enough employees to devel- op and implement needed products will struggle to survive.
“The EHR certification rule will put a major strain on vendors’ resources over the next two years. They will have to spend a lot of time and effort program- ming their products to meet certification requirements and then implementing these upgrades for all of their physician customers by 2014. This is in addition to their continual efforts to enhance their products to remain competitive,” he said. Kevin Spencer, MD, an Austin fam-
ily physician and member of TMA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Health Information
Technology, also wonders how compa- nies with a small customer base will fare under the new rules, which require them to meet expensive certification standards. “I do think we’ll see some vendors leave the market, and I envision a con- solidation of the EHR market,” he said. Careful selection of EHR vendors will
be key for physicians moving forward, Dr. Schneider says. “Physicians should try to ensure ven- dors have a significant enough user base in a specific specialty, nationally and lo- cally, to stay in business,” he said.
Good practice Dr. Spencer says achieving Stage 1 and Stage 2 meaningful use requirements benefits physicians and patients. “It’s good for patients to have all of their physicians exchanging their data in a meaningful way,” he said. “For our practice, jumping into an EHR
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system has revolutionized how we prac- tice and how we engage patients. We have almost 17,000 of our patients on our portal, which allows them to make appointment requests, access health re- minders, and email us in a secure envi- ronment,” he said. Dr. Spencer participates in the Medi-
Experience the Difference ONC-ATCB Certified Meaningful Use Ready Seamlessly Integrated Affordably Priced
info@nablemd.com 877-290-2536
www.nablemd.com 36 TEXAS MEDICINE December 2012
care incentive program and has earned $18,000 for achieving Stage 1 meaning- ful use. (See Medicare and Medicaid In- centives,” page 35.) For more information, visit the CMS EHR Incentive Programs website, www
.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms. Ad- ditionally, TMA’s EHR Implementation Guide, EHR Product Comparison Tool (TMA member login required), Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Compari- son, EHR incentive eligibility tool, and Medicare and Medicaid incentive pro- gram instructions are available on the HIT site,
www.texmed.org/hit.
Avoid 2014 doom
While achieving Stage 2 meaningful use criteria for earning electronic health re- cord (EHR) incentives in 2014 may not
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