Enjoy your Quarterly News from your West Texas Health IT Regional Extension Center (WTxHITREC) and please feel free to forward this email to any of your colleagues or interested parties.

Contact the WTxHITREC at 806-743-7960 or info@wtxhitrec.org to learn more about our new service lines, serving all health care providers and hospitals through a flexible payment model!

October 3rd Deadline Approaching Soon!
October 3, 2013, last day for Eligible Providers to begin 90-day reporting period for CY 2013 Meaningful Use! Contact the WTxHITREC to avoid missing this deadline and receiving a payment reduction in the Medicare incentive program.

Medicaid Physician Specialist Program - Coming Soon!

Currently, the WTxHITREC is at the final stage of completing an agreement with the Texas Health & Human Services Commission to offer the Medicaid Physician Specialist Program.

Once approved, services will be available for physicians, who serve a Medicaid population of 30% or greater, in selecting, implementing, and achieving meaningful use of certified EHR products, as well as, support with privacy & security and registration/attestation assistance for Medicaid EHR incentive payments.

Eligible specialties will include:

-Cardiology

-Endocrinology

-Pulmonary Disease

-Psychiatry

The Medicaid Physician Specialist Program will be federally funded through the Texas Health & Human Services Commission. With this funding, all costs will be covered for eligible physicians and no fees will be associated with this program.

Please contact the WTxHITREC at 806-743-7960 for more information and updates on this program.

Working Toward the ICD-10 Transition

Several steps are needed to make sure the transition to ICD-10 is seamless and as painless as possible. With the October 1, 2014 deadline just around the corner, the implementation of these changes will take careful and strategic planning.

The first step would be to prepare a project plan. This plan will enable you to set goals and timelines, as well as assess the impact of this undertaking to your practice or facility. Be sure and analyze each area in your practice that will use ICD-10 and evaluate their readiness. Take this opportunity to assign tasks identified during this evaluation to your staff.

Education and training of your staff on the new coding system will need to begin to take place as well. This training should continue up to the implementation of ICD-10 to keep them familiar and comfortable with the new codes. Within the new coding system there are over 70,000 codes, which can be very overwhelming. Your staff will have newly revised code books, increased clinical knowledge and concurrent coding between ICD-9 and ICD-10. Helping to reassure them that you understand this undertaking and are available for support along the way will insure their success.

Click here to read more

Submitted by

Cappi Phillips

WTxHITREC Regional Coordinator

Provider Spotlight

Lawrence D. Stutte, MD

Meaningful Use Vanguard

Iowa Park is a small community, with a population of just over 6,000, located a few miles west of Wichita Falls, TX and home of the Park Clinic. The team of health care providers and staff at Park Clinic provide family practice to patients of all ages. Recently, Park Clinic chose to adopt health information technology (HIT) to serve its patient community with continued quality health care.

Park Clinic has been fully committed to successfully implement an electronic health record (EHR) to support valued heath care. In particular, Lawrence D. Stutte, MD, recently achieved and attested to meaningful use of an EHR. As a result of his efforts, Dr. Stutte, the provider team, and staff have earned the distinction as leaders in HIT and have been named Meaningful Use Vanguards by the West Texas Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (WTxHITREC). Stutte's recognition is an initiative of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology designed to honor, thank and bring together clinicians and hospitals that have successfully implemented EHRs.

Click here to read more

Submitted by

Leta Cross-Gray, MSN, RN, HIT Pro-CP

WTxHITREC Regional Coordinator

Patient-Centered Medical Home

What is PCMH?

Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a new model for primary care that facilitates partnerships between individual patients and their personal physicians. The basic idea is the patient is at the center of care, in a professional team approach for receiving a full range of comprehensive services. The team consists of a social worker, nurse, pharmacist, and is directed by a physician. They share the responsibility of patient care, from preventive, chronic disease management and acute care.

Studies have shown that patients treated in a medical home model have better quality of care; are more satisfied with their healthcare and produce lower healthcare spending.

Click here to read more

Submitted by

Leta Cross-Gray, MSN, RN, HIT Pro-CP

WTxHITREC Regional Coordinator

and

Becky Jones, RN, MSN, CPHQ, HIT-Pro PW

WTxHITREC Regional Coordinator

National Health IT Week - 2013

Initially designed to raise national awareness of health information technology, National Health IT week (Sept 16th- 20th) offers the opportunity for some celebration in its eighth year. Today more than 38 percent of physicians have adopted a basic electronic health record (EHR) and over 145,000 providers, supported by Regional Extension Centers nationwide, are moving through the stages of meaningful use - a set of standards that governs the use of EHRs.

More progress must be made, but it is increasingly accepted that comprehensive health care reform is not possible without system-wide adoption of health information technology. Many providers have actively embraced it and are seeing improved quality of health care delivery, increased patient safety, and have strengthened the interaction between patients and health care providers.

2013 Health IT Week

-Monday, September 16 - Patient Engagement

-Tuesday, September 17 - Building Trust

-Wednesday, September 18 - Transforming the Health Care System through Health IT

-Thursday, September 19 - Defining the Path to Interoperability

-Friday, September 20 - Using Health IT to Improve Quality

To learn more about Health IT Week for 2013, please view the ONC's website for more information.

Do you have any issues you would like to know more about or see in the next newsletter?

If so, please contact the WTxHITREC with any newsletter additions, questions or service needs at 806-743-7960 or info@wtxhitrec.org

Sincerely,

Carson Scott, MPA

Director Marketing, Outreach, Education & Communications
WTxHITREC - Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

806-743-7467

carson.scott@ttuhsc.edu