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 For EHR Meaningful Use Incentives in 2013 MEDICARE Incentives July 3, 2013 |
Last day for eligible hospitals to begin their 90-day reporting period to demonstrate meaningful use for FY 2013. |
September 30, 2013
Last day of federal fiscal year. Reporting year ends for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals.
October 1, 2013
90-day reporting begins for eligible hospitals and critical hospitals for FY 2014.
December 31, 2013
Reporting year ends for eligible professionals.
MEDICAID Incentives
March 1, 2013 - WY
March 29, 2013 - MT
Last day eligible providers must register and attest for 2012 calendar year.
November 29, 2013
An eligible hospital must register and attest for 2013 calendar year. | |
MU Stage 2 | |
Make sure you are prepared for Stage 2 of the EHR Incentive Programs. See our full list of
MU Services |
| More than $10.4 Billion Incentive Payments Made |  | |
As of 12/2012, 190,000 providers have received Medicaid/Medicare EHR Incentive payments.
From 5/2011 to 12/2013, over $6.1 billion Medicare EHR Incentive Payments have been paid.
Since 1/2011 to 12/2013, over $4.3 billion Medicaid EHR Incentive Payments have been paid.
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Meaningful Use
Stage 2 Reminder
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The earliest that the criteria for Stage 2 will be effective is the first day of fiscal year 2014 (October 1, 2013) for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs)
and
calendar year 2014 (January 1, 2014) for eligible providers (EPs).
All providers must achieve meaningful use under the Stage 1 criteria before moving to Stage 2.
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| Do Eligible Hospitals and Providers need to have their EHR certified to 2014 even if they are attesting to MU Stage 1 in 2014? |
YES, if participating in MU in 2014, you will need to be using Stage 2 certified EHR technology (certified to the 2014 Edition EHR certification criteria).
This is the case regardless of whether you are still attesting to Stage 1 or have already moved to Stage 2.
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| ICD-10
October 1, 2014 Deadline
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On October 1, 2014, the
ICD-9 code sets used to report medical diagnoses and inpatient procedures will be replaced by ICD-10 code sets.
CMS has released updated ICD-10 Implementation Guides. These guides are step-by-step resources for providers looking for help with their ICD-10 transition.
Click to open these implementation guides
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Spring is in the Air
From all of us at Health Technology Services
Susan Clarke
Mary Erickson
Patty Kosednar
Sarah Leake
Daniel Meyers
Sharon Milanos
Mark Norby
Erin O'Brien
Marlin Sander | |
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EHR and Health IT Perspectives Newsletter
Welcome to the Montana/Wyoming Health Technology Service's (HTS) EHR and Health IT Perspectives Newsletter.
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| GREAT NEWS! | |
 ONC has approved the Montana/Wyoming Meaningful Use Grant Program extension for Eligible Providers and Critical Access Hospitals through
April 2014.
We have enjoyed working with our Montana/Wyoming clinics and hospitals, and will continue to be here to help you with all your Meaningful Use needs!
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Montana/Wyoming HIMSS Convention
May 2-3 in Billings, MT
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If you are planning to attend the Montana/Wyoming HIMSS Spring Convention and Trade Show on May 2-3 at the Crowne Plaza in Billings, do plan on attending this informative presentation -
"LEAN in Today's Rural Healthcare Environment"
Patty Kosednar, Director of Operations at Health Technology Services and Wray Paul, VP of Professional Services at SigmaMed Solutions, and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, promise you an educational and enlightening introduction to new and effective methodologies for implementing improvement methodology in a rural healthcare environment.
Topics will include:
- Introduction to Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in a Rural Healthcare environment
- New Thinking in Lean Transition and Effective Change Leadership
- Application of Lean Six Sigma to Healthcare IT Planning Implementation and Project Management
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Study Finds Approaches Designed for Manufacturing, Technology Sectors May Improve Patient Care
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A new Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded study found that manufacturing management practices, including Toyota's "Lean" methodologies, may be beneficial in helping hospitals achieve high-quality health care outcomes.
Researchers have long surmised that management techniques successful in manufacturing and technology sectors may improve health care quality. However, little evidence exists about how these practices are disseminated in hospitals and whether they are associated with better performance.
The study, "Management Practices and the Quality of Care in Cardiac Units," which appeared online March 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that the manufacturing management practices were associated with higher process-of-care measures and lower 30-day mortality due to acute myocardial infarction.
Read the abstract in JAMA Internal Medicine
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Congratulations to Three 2013 Top 100 Montana/Wyoming Critical Access Hospitals
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Barrett Memorial Hospital in Dillon, Montana
Star Valley Medical Center in Afton, Wyoming
Platte County Memorial Hopital in Wheatland, Wyoming
Research conducted by iVantage Health Analytics determined the 2013 Top 100 Performing Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) based on the Hospital Strength Index. This Index is the first nationwide hospital rating system to evaluate U.S. general acute care hospitals using a balanced scorecard approach, covering market strength and population growth, value-based purchasing and qualitative factors and financial measures most predictive of sustainability.
Here is a Summary of the 2013 Top 100 CAH Findings -
- Top 100 CAHs include 60 multi-year Top Performers with 40 new facilities joining the ranks in 2013
- Top 100 CAHs perform as well or better at the median overall than the full census of all U.S. general acute care hospitals
- Top CAHs face the least population-based demand for future healthcare services while their Quality is near the Top Quartile when compared to all U.S. general acute care hospitals.
- Top 100 CAH performance is in the Top Quartile of all U.S. general acute care hospitals in the Financial and Cost & Charge categories of the study
- Top 100 CAHs are equally divided in terms of organizational structure (52% are independent, and 48% are system-affiliated)
Read the details...
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New Interactive Resource for MU Stage 2 and
2014 Clinical Quality Measures (CQM)
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CMS News Update
March 20, 2013
CMS recently posted a new resource to help eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) prepare for Stage 2 of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.
Available on the Educational Resources page of the EHR Incentive Programs website, the interactive Stage 2 Toolkit includes materials on Stage 2 and the 2014 clinical quality measure (CQM) requirements.
The toolkit is divided into three sections - 
- Basics
- Resources for EPs
- Resources for eligible hospitals and CAHs
Providers who use the toolkit will find the following information -
- An overview of Stage 2
- Stage 2 FAQs
- How the Stage 2 provisions affect Stage 1 requirements
- Comparison tables of Stage 1 and Stage 2 criteria
- Details about payment adjustment and hardship exemptions
- 2014 CQMs, including descriptions, technical release notes, and the recommended core sets for EPs and eligible hospitals
Need help understanding what is needed for Stage 1 Year 2?
 We are ready to help you navigate the next steps of Meaningful Use . Stage 2 means higher thresholds in patient engagement and care coordination, but also includes specific requirements in e-prescribing, recording demographic information and transmitting care summaries electronically.
Contact your HTS REC Health Technology Consultant or
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Montana Ready to Accept Syndromic Surveillance for Meaningful Use
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Montana is ready to accept your syndromic surveillance data in relation to the meaningful use measure. They are working very closely with on-board specialists at CDC and data engineers at HealthShare Montana (State Health Information Exchange) to make this work.
Providers have the option to set up an interface connection directly with CDC (Biosense 2.0) or through HealthShare Montana.
Here are the steps to set up an interface connection:
Who to Contact at Montana DPHHS if You Need Help
Joel Merriman, Montana DPHHS Syndromic Surveillance Coordinator
Communicable Disease Epidemiology Program
Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services
Ph. 406-444-0274
http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/haiprevention/index.shtml
http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/cdepi/index.shtml
.  You can no longer take the "state is not ready" exclusion for this MU measure.
Questions??
Contact your HTS REC Health Technology Consultant or
Patty Kosednar 406-461-4410
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| What is Syndromic Surveillance? | | A Key to Disease Monitoring
 Syndromic surveillance is a public health tool that relies on the real time use of informtion about the health of a population to identify issues of concern and address them before they become epidemics.
This tool relies on pooling data from a number of different sources to identify trends and act on them. Anything from bioterrorism to food contamination can be identified more rapidly with the use of syndromic surveillance, allowing public officials to intervene in a timely and effective fashion.
Public health agencies use this technique to spot clusters of activity associated with particular syndromes. For instance, a public health agency might want to monitor the incidence of flu to identify serious outbreaks as quickly as possible. It would look at reports from hospitals and doctors' offices, checking for an inrease in patients with flu-like syndromes and taking special note of clusters of similar cases. It would also look at data like absenteeism from school and work, traffic patterns, etc., under the logic that a rise in flu cases will cause a ripple effect in society.
Learn more... |
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New Health Technology Services LEAN Offerings
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Health Technology Services is excited to offer two new services to our clinics and hospitals - Lean Sigma Healthcare Methodology and Lean Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH).
- Lean Sigma Healthcare Methodology will allow us to help your clinic and hospital teams learn and apply an improvement healthcare methodology that can rapidly deliver lasting process improvements that can result in reduced costs and improved patient care.
- Lean Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) will allow us to help you redesign your patient care proccesses to attain National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) designation as a Patient Centered Medical Home.
Contact your HTS REC Health Technology Consultant or
Patty Kosednar 406-461-4410
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Additional HTS Services
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Let Health Technology Services assist you with all your HIT needs, from EHR selection/implementation to meaningful use and beyond. Our HIT services also include:
- HIT Consulting and Project Management
- IT Managed Services
- HIPAA Privacy and Security Assessments and New Network Penetration Testing
- New Lean Sigma Healthcare Methodology
- New Lean Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH)
- EHR and Essential Computer Training Programs
- MU Year 2 monitoring and Stage 2 Preparation
New - We now have a Trusted IT Partner who can assist you with -
- Securing, Installing, Servicing and Supporting Hardware
- Recommending Software Solutions
- Managing Network and Other IT Services
Contact your HTS REC Health Technology Consultant for help or
Patty Kosednar 406-461-4410
See more at about these services on our website
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Health IT Resources (Links)
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Patient Centered Medical Home
NCQA 's Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) 2011 is an innovative program for improving primary care. In a set of standards that describe clear and specific criteria, the program gives practices information about organizing care around patients, working in teams and coordinating and tracking care over time.
HealthShare Montana
HealthShare Montana is a statewide, non-profit organization, created to develop a system for the electronic exchange of healthcare information.
New CMS MU Stage 2 Toolkit
New resource to help eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) prepare for Stage 2 of the EHR Incentive Programs.
CMS Interactive Tool to Determine MU Stages
An interactive tool that allows eligible providers to determine what year they will meet Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 of meaningful use in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
CMS EHR Frequently Asked Questions
Stay up to date with the most current frequently asked questions about the Medicaid and Medicare EHR Incentive Programs.
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Thank-you for reading our newsletter. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments. We also welcome your feedback.
Thank-you!
Marlin Sander
Executive Director
Health Technology Services
Montana/Wyoming Regional Extension Center
406-457-5897
www.htsrec.com
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