Recent national figures from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) indicate more than 129,000 priority primary care providers (PPCPs) have enrolled in REC programs similar to IL-HITREC’s. Late last fall, IL-HITREC reached its target goal of enrolling 1,300 PPCPs to assist in reaching meaningful use of a certified electronic health record system.

IL-HITREC anticipates that 381 of providers in its service region will receive nearly $8.5 million in federal Medicaid first-year pay-out incentives during 2012. IL-HITREC anticipates an additional 150 of its providers will receive about $3.2 million in federal Medicaid incentive pay-outs in 2013. State-wide data that includes Chicago provided by the ONC indicated first-year Medicaid pay-outs to 478 eligible providers of $10.1 million through the end of February.

IL-HITREC is a collaboration of healthcare and educational organizations focused on providing education, outreach and technical assistance to PPCPs throughout Illinois, outside the City of Chicago.

Medicaid spending has a positive ripple effect on state and local economies, according to John L. Lewis Co-Director of IL-HITREC. He said the economic impact begins with the reimbursement of providers for services delivered and trickles down to other areas.

“As Medicaid money is channeled through the local economy, it supports employment, wages, consumer spending, business income, state tax revenue and overall economic output. Medicaid reimbursement to providers becomes, in part, the earnings of doctors, nurses, technicians, pharmacists and other staff, as well as local businesses throughout the medical industry,” said Lewis.

IL-HITREC was created as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Recovery Act was designed to create jobs and foster economic growth through a series of tax cuts. It benefits working families and businesses, increases federal entitlement programs (such as unemployment insurance), and invests in long-term growth through federal contracts, grants, and loans.

Portions of the Recovery Act relating to health information technology are known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH Act.

“In order to encourage health care providers to take advantage of advances in health information technology and support the Recovery Act’s goal of economic stimulus, the HITECH Act appropriated funds for a program of financial incentives to providers participating in Medicare and Medicaid who use certified EHR technology,” said Roger Holloway, Co-Director of IL-HITREC.

“Primary care providers, in partnership with RECs like IL-HITREC, have taken a major step in transforming health care into an integrated system that enhances the safety and quality of care for patients nationwide,” he added.

The ARRA stimulus package includes financial incentives for health care providers who achieve meaningful use with an EHR. Medicare incentives can provide up to $44,000 per provider over five years, and Medicaid incentives up to $63,750 per provider over six years.

Medicomp Systems has announced that Dan Gainer has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer. Gainer joined Medicomp in 2005 as a Senior Software Engineer.

Dave Lareau, CEO of Medicomp Systems, said, “Dan’s appointment to CTO reflects the significance of his contributions in the past seven years to move us to web-based capabilities. Dan has completed the charge to new technologies.”

Before joining Medicomp Systems, Gainer co-founded a company that provides accounting software for small businesses that contract with the federal government. With over 23 years in software development, his base experience covers a number of industries including health care, accounting, education and financial services.

Gainer has been instrumental in Medicomp’s launch of Quippe, an integrated fast and familiar physician and nursing documentation tool embedded in leading EHR systems. Medicomp Systems also provides the medical industry with the powerful MEDCIN® Engine that adapts to the unique clinical presentation of each patient, provides the codes needed for compliance and reimbursement and provides the engine for connected clinical care.

Through an efficient and easy-to-use platform, medical professionals are able to give better and safer care to their patients, and in turn, the patients have the ability to be digitally connected to their medical histories and charts, schedule appointments themselves, have prescriptions filled and refilled electronically, and have access to a patient portal where they can communicate with their doctor and facility.

“Within such a short period of time, our providers have added more than 30 thousand patients to their iChartsMD.  It is a great feeling that we are in turn helping our users help those 30K patients”, said Morgan Prakash, the CEO of iCharts MD.   “We look forward to our ever-expanding user base adding even more patients to their iChartsMD.”

According to the American Transcription Association President Regan recognized the value and importance of medical transcriptionists and thus established National Medical Transcriptionist Week on May 21, 1985. President Regan realized how common it was becoming for people to have more than one physician, change physicians, go to a specialty physician, etc. Consequently, he understood the significance of proper, legible medical transcription so that a person’s medical history could be provided to and reviewed by multiple physicians, if need be, for proper treatment and patient care.

Well, things have changed significantly since 1985 and in this world of Electronic Health Records what is the future of the Medical Transcription Industry and the tens of thousands of medical transcriptionists working in the United States?

Obviously the market for Medical Transcription services is in decline and the number of businesses providing MT services is shrinking dramatically.  Smaller firms are being acquired by larger firms, or simply going out of business.    Larger firms are finding new ways of generating revenue offering services that go well beyond those offered just a few years ago.

The medical transcription industry is not going away, at least in the near term, but it is changing and changing quickly.  If you’re an MT what are your thoughts on the future?  What are you doing to retain customers, add services and keep the revenue flowing?  Let’s talk about it either in the comments section below or here on Google Plus.

The expectation, supported by the experience of other Medsphere customers, is that 319-bed Cooper Green will receive substantially more in federal reimbursement than Jefferson County’s initial five-year costs to acquire the system. Alabama’s largest county has faced significant financial challenges in recent years, making the improvement of both patient care and financial performance crucially important.

“What Cooper Green Hospital is accomplishing in the face of Jefferson County’s extreme budgetary challenges is nothing short of remarkable,” said Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “Hospital CEO Dr. Sandral Hullett and county leaders should be commended for improving patient care without adding to budgetary shortfalls. The successful implementation of the OpenVista EHR at Cooper Green is a compelling example of responsible decision-making. Especially in these troubled economic times, public hospitals can still improve care without making financial matters worse for local government.”

Cooper Green selected the OpenVista EHR and Stockell Healthcare’s Insight CS financial and patient accounting solution as a replacement for Meditech. In addition to the ability to cover their initial five-year health IT costs through federal reimbursement, the hospital also looks forward to more financially manageable operating expenses as all upgrades, enhancements and support are included in Medsphere’s subscription-based pricing model.

“I want to express my deep gratitude to Cooper Green clinicians and staff for the hard work they’ve put in on our OpenVista implementation project. They’ve really embraced the change, which is essential to making the system work,” said Dr. Hullett. “These are tough times in Jefferson County, and we feel fortunate that we were able to implement a comprehensive EHR without paying multimillions of dollars. Honestly, we could not have done that, so the OpenVista EHR was both timely and welcome.”

In partnership with Medsphere, Cooper Green will soon begin using OpenVista to closely track Meaningful Use requirements such as use of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) for medication orders, drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions, and electronic prescribing. Medsphere and Cooper Green collaborated during implementation and training on workflow process redesign, which will continue to ensure improved clinical efficiency and Meaningful Use success.

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As providers continue to seek ways to do more with fewer resources, the limited hardware expenses, ease of use, and growing confidence in cloud storage continue to make Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions more enticing. The recent KLAS SaaS EMR 2012: Is It For You? report discusses the performance of SaaS EMR products from vendors such as AdvancedMD, athenahealth, Bizmatics, CureMD, MedPlus/Quest Diagnostics, MIE, OptumInsight, Practice Fusion, Sevocity, and Waiting Room Solutions.

Research director and report author Erik Bermudez said, “The SaaS EMR deployment model is becoming more popular for providers who want minimal up-front cost and prefer to give the responsibility of the care and feeding of the software to the vendor. Luckily for providers, there are plenty of good options.”

KLAS spoke with nearly 300 healthcare providers that are currently using SaaS EMR to better understand which vendors offer the most comprehensive solution. Providers identified four key areas that differentiated the vendors: EMR response time, customer support, product quality, and bang for the buck.

EMR response time compared to overall performance score

The KLAS SaaS EMR 2012: Is It For You? report is available to healthcare providers online for a significant discount. Both healthcare providers and vendors can visit  www.KLASresearch.com/KLASreports to purchase the report. KLAS members can learn more about the SaaS ambulatory EMR products by logging in to their account at www.KLASresearch.com. Providers can share their experiences with SaaS solutions confidentially online with KLAS at www.KLASresearch.com/eval.

SOURCE:  KLAS

“Our specialized EHR templates and modules change the face of caregiving for OB/GYN providers by empowering them with an EHR that is, according to published usage statistics, among the most usable products in its class,” according to Stephen Snyder, MTBC’s president. “With its unique OB/GYN-focused templates, annotatable anatomic images, and seamless integration with our practice management system, business intelligence tools and revenue cycle management service, MTBC’s OB/GYN EHR will help providers reduce administrative expenses, increase revenues and streamline patient care.”

“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 created rich governmental incentives – $44,000 to $66,750 over 5 years – for health care providers who acquire and demonstrate “meaningful use” of an EHR,” said Muhammad Chebli, Vice President of Information Technology. He further explained, “The term ‘meaningful use’ was coined by the Department of Health and Human Services to describe a provider’s true embrace and utilization of an EHR and the most recently released statistics for the first year of the incentive program show that MTBC’s users have become meaningful users at a higher and faster rate than those using other leading EHRs.”

Ease of EHR use is a particular concern for the OB/GYN community. Mr. Chebli explained, “The latest CMS data indicate that a relatively small percentage of OB/GYNs have achieved and attested for meaningful use, suggesting that there may be a significant usability gap among the existing OB/GYN EHR solutions. This EHR is a ‘game-changer’ for OB/GYN providers who are seeking a robust and fully integrated solution that is easy to learn and use,” said Mr. Chebli.

MTBC has continued to support to an increased number of specialty-specific EHRs. During the third quarter of 2012, MTBC plans to release a series of new specialized EHR modules and integrated solutions, with a particular focus on pediatric and psychiatry practices. These unique solutions will be offered at no additional cost to its PracticePro(TM) and ChartsPro(TM) clients and to providers who are associated with medical billing and practice management companies that are acquired as part of MTBC’s ongoing acquisition campaign.

By the end of 2011, 58 percent of office-based physicians were using e-prescribing. In terms of practice size, adoption rates are highest among smaller practices with six to 10 physicians (55 percent) and two to five physicians (53 percent). The most significant growth in physician adoption of e-prescribing occurred among solo practitioners – from 31 percent in 2010 to 46 percent in 2011. Among specialty groups, e-prescribing adoption rates are highest among internists (81%), endocrinologists (78%), cardiologists (76%) and family practitioners (75%).

Other highlights from the report include:

• The number of electronic prescriptions routed in 2011 grew to 570 million, up from 326 million
  e-prescriptions in 2010. By the end of 2011, an estimated 36 percent of prescriptions dispensed were routed electronically, up from 22 percent at the end of 2010.

• A recently completed analysis shows that of the physicians who adopted and began using e-prescribing in 2008, up to 60 percent have successfully met the Stage 1 meaningful use e-prescribing measure and 38 percent of these early users would meet the proposed Stage 2 meaningful use e-prescribing measure if it were now in effect. The results also found that e-prescriptions per active e-prescriber increased over time. In first quarter 2008, the average was 49 per month. By fourth quarter 2011, the study group averaged 213 per month.

• In 2011, Surescripts partnered with pharmacy benefit managers and retail pharmacies to compare the effectiveness of e-prescriptions and paper prescriptions on first-fill medication adherence. The data showed a consistent 10 percent increase in patient first-fill medication adherence (i.e., new prescriptions that were picked up by the patient) among physicians who adopted e-prescribing technology. The analysis suggests that the increase in first-fill medication adherence combined with other e-prescribing benefits could over the next 10 years lead to between $140 billion and $240 billion in health care cost savings and improved health outcomes.

“Beyond the significant gains in adoption, our research indicates that the longer physicians e-prescribe – the more they e-prescribe,” said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of Surescripts. “The findings are an early indicator that the meaningful use objectives for e-prescribing appear to be set at a level that was attainable for the majority of providers. This should serve as an encouraging sign for regulators as they look to raise the bar on meaningful use measures in ways that continue to lower costs and improve the quality of the nation’s healthcare system.”

In addition to tracking numerous measures of health IT adoption and use, the report discusses the future of e-prescribing, the value of prescription benefit information and how industry collaboration is driving continuous improvements in electronic prescription quality. For a downloadable copy of “The National Progress Report on E-Prescribing and Interoperable Healthcare, Year 2011,” go to www.surescripts.com/report.

Transcription, once the primary means of documenting patient visits, now has competition from other documentation methods such as front-end speech recognition and point-and-click tools within the electronic health record, or EHR. The result is that the transcription industry – estimated at $10 billion annually in 2008 – has been in steady decline. WebChartMD’s series of webinars focus on the changes that have occurred and the ways transcription companies can reposition themselves in the clinical documentation market.

“The webinar looks first at the impact EHRs are having on different segments of the transcription industry,” Christensen added, “and then breaks out five key areas medical transcription companies need to focus on in order to survive the transcription downturn.”

The five areas presented in the initial webinar and then featured in upcoming break-out sessions are “Changing Marketing Tactics”, “Changing Sales Tactics”, “Interfacing Boot Camp”, “Leveraging Technology Effectively”, and “Back-End Speech Recognition.” All webinars are offered at no cost, and are accessed using GoToWebinar, an easy-to-use web-based webinar tool.

The first webinar, “Surviving the Transcription Market Downturn”, will be held May 23rd and repeated on May 25th. For a full schedule of webinars and to register, please visit www.webchartmd.com/webinars