In This Issue
Important Dates for MU
Patients Can Obtain Test Results Directly from Lab
ICD-10 Check
FREE WEBINARS on HIPAA Privacy and Security and more!
New EHR Attestation Deadline for EPs - 3/31/2014
How Are the RECs Doing?
Reminder...2013 was Final Program Year for Medicare eRx Incentive Program
EHR Program Update
What's New for PQRS Participation in 2014
ACOs Off To a Strong Start
See All HTS Services
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FOR EHR MEANINGFUL USE INCENTIVES

       

March 31, 2014

Eligible professionals must attest to receive payment for 2013 calendar year.
  
March 31, 2014
Last day of quarter for eligible professionals reporting for 1st quarter of 2014.
 
July 3, 2014
Last day for eligible hospitals (including CAHs) to begin their 90-day reporting period to demonstrate Meaningful Use for 2014 calendar year.

 

October 1, 2014
Last day for new eligible professional meaningful users to attest to 2014 data and avoid the 2015 payment adjustment.
 

See Complete CMS MU Timeline 

 

  ********************

FOR PQRS

 

February 28, 2014

Deadline for eligible professionals to submit 2013 PQRS data through some reporting methods for the 2013 program year.

 

Last day for Medicare eligible professionals participating in the Electronic Reporting Pilot to submit quality data to satisfy both the PQRS and the CQM requirement of the EHR Incentive Program.

 

March 31, 2014

Submission deadline of QCDRs

 

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FOR ICD-10

 

October 1, 2014 

Transition date from ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes for diagnoses and inpatient procedures.

Patients Can Obtain Test Results Directly From Lab

   
A final rule announced on 2/3/14 amends the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) regulations to allow laboratories to give a patient, or a person designated by the patient, his or her "personal representative," access to the patient's completed test reports on the patient's or patient's personal representative's request. 
  

While patients can continue to get access to their laboratory test reports from their doctors, these changes give patients a new option to obtain their test reports directly from the laboratory while maintaining strong protections for patients' privacy.

 

read the final rule

 

ICD-10 Check

 

With less than one year to go until the October 1, 2014, compliance date, now is the time to check your progress.

 

Check the provider resources page on the CMS website frequently for news and information to help you prepare.
  

 

From all of us at Health Technology Services

 

Deb Anderson 

Susan Clarke

Lisa Corino

Mary Erickson

Patty Kosednar

Sarah Leake

Sharon Milanos

Mark Norby

Issue #17  

       February, 2014   
 EHR and Health IT Perspectives Newsletter   
          
 Welcome to the Montana/Wyoming Health Technology Service's (HTS) EHR and Health IT Perspectives Newsletter. 

FREE WEBINARS

Meaningful Use Stage 2,  

HIPAA Privacy and Security, and more

free webinar 

Join us for our FREE webinars below - registration is required.

  

Wed., February 12, 1-2 pm MST

Meaningful Use Stage 2

register here

Wed., February 19, 1-2 pm MST

HIPAA Privacy and Security

register here

Wed., March 19, 1-2 pm MST

Understanding & Reporting 2014 Clinical Quality Measures for EPs and EHs

register here
   

Stay Tuned for Future Webinar Dates 

Open MU Q&A (For HTS MU subscribers only)

** details on how to Become a MU Subscriber **

 

 See details on our website www.healthtechnologyservice.com

New EHR Attestation Deadline for EPs - March 31, 2014
CMS is extending the deadline for eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program 2013 reporting year from 11:59 pm ET on February 28, 2014 to 11:59 pm ET March 31, 2014.
  
In addition, CMS is offering assistance to eligible hospitals who may have experienced difficulty attesting to submit their attestation retroactively and avoid the 2015 payment adjustment.
  
This extension will allow more time for providers to submit their meaningful use data and receive an incentive payment for the 2013 program year, as well as avoid the 2015 payment adjustment.
 

Need help? Contact your HTS REC Health Technology Consultant or call

Patty Kosednar 406-461-4410
See more at about these services on our website

How Are the Regional Extension Centers Doing?

Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded an evaluation of the 4-year Regional Extension Center program - and the results are in! 

 

RECs have made substantial progress in assisting primary care providers (PCPs) with adoption and meaningful use (MU) of Electronic Health Records (EHR).  Small practices, community health centers, and rural and public hospitals are now using technology for care delivery transformation and improvement.

  

From January 2010 through June 2013, data was collected from 62 RECs.  The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the REC program's progress toward its goal of supporting over 100,000 providers in small, rural, and underserved practices to achieve meaningful use of an electronic health record.

 

Here's what they found -

  • RECs recruited almost 134,000 primary care providers, or 44% of the nation's PCPs
  • 86% of the PCPs were using an EHR with advanced functionality
  • 48% of the PCPs have demonstrated meaningful use
  • 83% of Federally Qualified Health Centers and 78% of Critical Access Hospitals participated with an REC 

read the full article... 

2013 Was Final Program Year for Medicare eRx Incentive Program              
 

As a reminder -- 2013 was the final program year for participating and reporting in the Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program. The 6-month 2014 eRx payment adjustment reporting period, which began on January 1, 2013 and ended on June 30, 2013, was the final reporting period to avoid the 2014 eRx payment adjustment. 

 

You don't need to report G-codes (G8553) for 2014 eRx.

 

* 2013 was the last year to earn an eRx incentive payment

* 2014 is the last year to incur an eRx payment adjustment

 

See the eRx Incentive Program website if you need to access reference materials about the eRx incentive payment, payment adjustment, and feedback reports.

 

Electronic Prescribing Continues with EHR Incentive Programs 

Electronic Prescribing using certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology is still a requirement for eligible professionals (EPs) in order to achieve meaningful use under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
Electronic Health Record Program Update

Since the inception of the EHR programs in 2011, more than 436,000 eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals are actively registered in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs:

  • Approximately 93% of all eligible hospitals have registered to participate in the EHR Incentive Programs.
  • Approximately 82% of all eligible professionals have registered to participate in the EHR Incentive Programs.

Meaningful Use
The data show that providers aren't just registering for the EHR Incentive Programs, they are meeting, and often far exceeding, the requirements for meaningful use.

 

Of the more than 215,288 Medicare eligible professionals that had attested at the time of analysis in 2013, 215,075 were successful - a 99.9% success rate.
What's New for PQRS Participation in 2014 

For those eligible professionals or group practices participating in Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) for the 2014 reporting year, CMS has released a new fact sheet that highlights program changes for the 2014 reporting year.

  

Some of the PQRS highlights include - 2014 Program Changes

  • An eligible professional or group practice participating in the group practice reporting option (GPRO) must satisfactorily report 2014 PQRS quality measures to avoid a 2% payment adjustment in 2016.  
  • CMS has added 37 new individual quality measures for the 2014 program year and retired 45 measures from 2013.  
  • Professionals who reassign benefits to a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) that bills professional services at a facility level, such as CAH Method II billing, can now participate in PQRS (in all reporting methods except for claims-based). 
See all the program and reporting changes in the What's New for 2014 Fact Sheet.
  
For more information or support for PQRS see the PQRS website.  
Medicare Accountable Care Organizations Off to a Strong Start
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors.
  
On January 30, CMS reported interim financial results for ACOs.  In their first 12 months, nearly half (54 out of 114) of the ACOs that started program operations in 2012 already had lower expenditures than projected. Of the 54 ACOs that exceeded their benchmarks in the first 12 months, 29 generated shared savings totaling more than $126 million. In addition, these ACOs generated a total of $128 million in net savings for the Medicare Trust Funds.
  
ACOs share with Medicare any savings generated from lowering the growth in health care costs while meeting standards for high quality care.  Final performance year-one results will be released later this year.   
Additional HTS Services 

Let Health Technology Services assist you with your HIT needs, from EHR selection/implementation to meaningful use and beyond.  Our HIT services also include: 

  • MU Year 2 Monitoring and Stage 2 Preparation
  • MU 2014 Risk Assessment Review
  • MU Stage 2 Consulting
  • HIT Consulting and Project Management
  • HIPAA Privacy and Security Assessments and New Network Penetration Testing
  • New Lean Sigma Healthcare Methodology
  • New Lean Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) 
  • New HSMDirect Secure Messaging  

Contact your HTS REC Health Technology Consultant for help or 

Patty Kosednar 406-461-4410 
See more at about these services on our website

Health IT Resources (Links)
HealthLinkNow
HealthLinkNow is an Online Clinic where meaningful care comes to patients via telemedicine at home, work, school or vacation.  
HealthShare Montana
HealthShare Montana is a statewide, non-profit organization, created to develop a system for the electronic exchange of healthcare information.   
Wyoming eHealth Partnership
ONC launches new eHealth resource site to help providers effectively engage patients in choosing how they want their electronic patient health information shared.  
MT HIMSS
MT Chapter of HIMSS is a local resource for peer networking, education, and information sharing to help navigate through the challenges in healthcare information technology with a focus in large rural areas.
Thank you for reading our newsletter.  Please contact us if you have any questions or comments. We also welcome your feedback. 
Thank You!                     

 

Patty Kosednar

Executive Director

Health Technology Services, MT/WY Regional Extension Center

...a division of Mountain-Pacific Quality Health

406-461-4410

www.heathtechnologyservice.com