DrFirst is running an interesting HIMSS promotion that is based around what they’re calling the “HIMSS Hero”.  They have created a video and are running a contest with the winner receiving a classic Las Vegas night on the town complete with a limo, dinner and a show.  To enter the contest all you need to do is to comment on their YouTube video titled “Healthcare Hero SAVES HIMSS12.”

You can see the video below, but to enter the contest  you’ll need to add your comment on the YouTube video page, which is linked to above.

DrFirst Provides affordable e-prescribing and Meaningful Use solutions that can qualify your practice for federal incentives.  To learn more you can visit their website.

Myca Health Inc. is announcing the release of version 5.0 of its cloud-based Hello Health® Patient Management solution for primary care practices. The platform connects patients and their primary care physician through an integrated electronic health record, online patient portal and a suite of secure, web-based communication tools. Hello Health version 5.0 is Surescripts® certified for prescription routing among many new features designed to streamline workflow for primary care physicians and their staff. Hello Health is a free EHR-based solution for primary care practices and generates incremental income for physicians through a revenue-sharing patient subscription model.

“Hello Health version 5.0 is our most significant release to date and reflects our focus on providing the most complete Patient Management solution for primary care,” said Nat Findlay, CEO and founder of Myca Health. “Not only is Hello Health version 5.0 2011/2012 compliant and certified as a Complete EHR by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), but with this release Hello Health version 5.0 is Surescripts certified for prescription routing. Additional features improve task management, claims and billing and document management leveraging the breadth of the Hello Health platform as the operating system of today’s family practice, internal medicine or pediatric office.”

The Surescripts electronic prescription routing for Hello Health version 5.0 allows legible new prescriptions to be sent directly from Hello Health to the computer at a pharmacy of the patient’s choice. Renewal authorization requests can be sent directly to Hello Health. Physicians can then review and respond to pending requests with a few keystrokes. The Surescripts network connects prescribers in all 50 states to the nation’s leading payers, chain and independent pharmacies.

Hello Health defines a new generation of technology for primary care practices that builds on traditional practice management and electronic health records marketed today. Unlike standalone electronic health record systems, the EHR within Hello Health is instead part of an integrated Patient Management platform that engages patients with a bi-directional patient portal and secure communication tools to access their health information and their care team. It recognizes that patients are fundamentally health care consumers who expect greater online access and convenience and are willing to pay for it. As a no-cost solution that also provides incremental revenue, the Hello Health business model is designed to improve the economics of operating a primary care practice.

Ryan Howard

Practice Fusion has announced that its award winning e-prescribing software has been revamped; creating a faster, simpler and more streamlined user experience based on community feedback. The company’s free e-prescribing technology flagged more than 7,000 deadly drug interactions for medical professionals in 2011 alone.

Recently recognized as the top EMR for e-prescribing by Brown-Wilson’s Black Booking Ranking survey of 120,000 medical providers, Practice Fusion’s e-prescribing software is often used as a gateway technology for doctors moving away from paper medical records. Bitten by the digital bug, a majority of users that signed up for the e-prescribing system later select Practice Fusion as their complete EMR solution.

“It’s a new year and we are focused on developing new free technology that saves lives, while delivering a great experience every time a doctor signs on,” said Ryan Howard, CEO and Founder of Practice Fusion. “Even one less click means physicians can spend more time focusing on the patient and delivering quality care.”

New e-Prescribing Features:

•   The new e-prescribing workflow reduces the number of screens required to complete a prescription in half; the number of clicks required is also reduced by half
•   Historical data on patient prescriptions is pre-populated for the doctor
•   Search is improved for medications and frequently prescribed drugs
•   The drug and allergy interaction alert screen is simplified to help doctors decide if a prescription is safe
•   Pharmacy lookup is smarter to help users find one of over 70,000 US pharmacies
•   Translated prescription instructions to reduce confusion between the patient, physician and pharmacist
•   Click to watch an e-Prescribing video demo of the updated workflow
•   Physicians – click here now to sign up for free e-prescribing with Practice Fusion

e-Prescribing is a key requirement for the federal Meaningful Use incentive program, which can earn eligible medical providers $44,000 or more. As a free and fast solution, Practice Fusion users are able to attest with a smaller time investment compared to other vendors and can maximize incentives without paying for a pricey EMR system. To learn more about how Practice Fusion can help you or your practice qualify for Meaningful Use, please visit the Practice Fusion Meaningful Use Center.

HealthITBuzz has posted a great Q&A with a local doctor practicing in rural Ellsworth, Wisconsin, affectionately known as the Cheese Curd Capital of Wisconsin.   The article addresses the use of his Electronic Health Record, Meaningful Use and e-Prescribing.

One of the gems of the article is his story of refilling a prescription while he was eating at McDonalds.

Last summer, I was in Estonia at a McDonald’s. And I had a patient email me and say, “I’m out of my high blood pressure meds.” Because I now have a mobile app for my EHR, I was able to get into the patient’s medical record through my smart phone and look up the needed prescription. Then, I refilled it in the local pharmacy, over the Web. If I can access the Internet, whether it’s on my iPad, my laptop, or my smart phone, I can access a medical record.

You can’t be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But the information is, and that’s the important part. So if a patient calls my partner who’s covering that night, she can go on a computer or smart phone, and look up the patient’s medical record.

If you’re looking for nuts and bolts information about the benefits of using an EHR in a rural community this article is well worth reading.

MedVantx, Inc., has announced the deployment of its patent pending Patient Profile™ patient medication and adherence reporting engine across its network of 3,600 high prescribing primary care providers participating in the Company’s integrated program of initial free medication therapy, adherence management and home delivery program. This new program utilizes the Company’s proprietary automated ATM like sample management system (“MedStart™“) and an integrated secure web reporting portal to provide physicians visibility to their patients’ adherence to chronic medication therapy.  The Platform is designed to help leading medical groups meet the requirements of emerging healthcare reform platforms.

Researchers at Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and CVS/Caremark announced the results of an important study last week indicating that up to 24% of consumers never fill their initial prescription. “While the results of this study are consistent with previous studies in the area, what is interesting is that prescription abandonment rates appear to be increasing with the growth in electronic prescribing,” said Susan Hogue, VP of Managed Care Networks and Clinical Services at MedVantx.  ”As Physicians embrace EHR and e-prescribing platforms, they need new tools to help insure medication therapy is initiated and adhered to on an ongoing basis.  Today, physicians have limited access to detailed data about medication samples provided and actual prescriptions filled.  MedVantx has pioneered a program that enables physicians to start all their patients on free prescription medications at the point of care thereby eliminating the potential for abandonment. As a result MedVantx is in a unique position to deliver a complete view of a specific patient’s medication program from an initial medication sample to continued fulfillment of chronic medications.”

MedVantx provides physicians with first ever access to a comprehensive formulary of free generic, brand, and over-the-counter medications covering chronic and complex conditions through its MedStart™ system. The MedStart™ system automates the traditional sampling process for the physician; captures physician sampling data for inclusion in the patients’ claims history medical record and provides consumers access to highly relevant drug and disease state educational materials. Since patients don’t always get prescriptions filled, physicians can enhance adherence by providing their patients with initial therapy and better informational tools to manage their conditions right from the office.  MedVantx also reaches out to patients to provide drug information, discuss adherence related issues and offer low-cost home delivery options.

Now with the availability of the MedVantx Patient Profile™, physicians are able to view data about how patients, on an individual basis, are complying with their prescribed medication treatments.  By showing exactly when a patient fills prescriptions, physicians can detect late refills, gaps in medication fulfillment, discontinued treatments and more to accurately access and improve patient compliance.

DrFirst announces that Greenway Medical Technologies and ChartLogic are the first EHR solution providers in the country whose users are sending controlled substance prescriptions electronically. Both firms participated in a pilot implementation of EPCS Gold™, DrFirst’s industry-wide, controlled substance e-prescribing solution. This service allows qualified physicians to send Schedule II-V drugs electronically to eligible pharmacies.

“Greenway and ChartLogic are long-time members of the DrFirst Open Borders program,” explained Zach Fox, vice president, partner programs at DrFirst. “As participants in the pilot implementation of EPCS Gold™, they demonstrated that this platform is ready for broad adoption among EHR vendors who wish to offer electronic controlled substance prescribing to their clients today.”

A pioneer in secure e-prescribing and currently the only vendor providing EPCS services, DrFirst offers EPCS Gold™ as a platform accessible to any EHR or HIS vendor. EPCS Gold™ includes identity proofing, two-factor authentication, digital signing, and other components required by the DEA in order to legally prescribe controlled drugs electronically. By integrating EPCS Gold™ with existing HIT systems, vendors have an opportunity to avoid lengthy development cycles, certifications, and audits, getting to market with EPCS without the costs and maintenance issues inherent in traditional approaches.

“We designed EPCS Gold™ to be a high-quality, scalable, DEA-compliant, fully certified, audited, and low cost solution to the industry’s need for electronic prescribing of controlled substances,” explained G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. “EHR and HIS vendors face many hurdles in getting to market with an EPCS capability; we wanted to remove those obstacles.”

Physicians in Berkshire County, Mass., began utilizing DrFirst’s EPCS 1.0 in a pilot program funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under the auspices of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and a waiver from the DEA. Through this pilot program, DrFirst was the first and only e-prescribing company to publically demonstrate the nation’s first end-to-end EPCS system. DrFirst was able to apply both the findings from the pilot and the requirements outlined in the DEA’s Interim Final Rule (IFR) to substantially enhance EPCS Gold™ for the 2.0 version of the product.

“Today is truly a landmark occasion for e-prescribing and electronic health records,” said Thomas Sullivan, MD, chief strategic officer at DrFirst. “After years of working with the DEA, software programmers, security specialists, healthcare experts and pharmacies, the inclusion of schedule II-V controlled substances advances the country toward universal e-prescribing.”

DrFirst has annonced that DentiMax is their first dental EMR partner to provide the ability to e-prescribe controlled substances. By offering DrFirst’s Rcopia and EPCS Gold™ services to their clients, DentiMax can provide e-prescribing of Schedule II-V drugs to qualified dentists across the nation.

“Dentists benefit from e-prescribing as it improves patient safety, office efficiency and overall workflow for prescribing and prescription drug management within the dental practice,” said David Arnett, DentiMax Co-founder and Owner. “However, with the addition of DrFirst Rcopia and EPCS Gold™, DentiMax now provides dentists and oral surgeons a complete e-prescribing system. It allows them one workflow for all prescriptions, rather than managing prescriptions for controlled substances separately.”

A high percentage of dentists and oral surgeons prescriptions are controlled substances. Adoption of e-prescribing by dentists has been slow in relation to other medical providers due to the inability to e-prescribe controlled substances and past restrictions by the DEA. DrFirst’s EPCS Gold™ is the only solution in the country that is fully certified to meet the prescription processing requirements set by Surescripts, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) requirements that are enforced through the Interim Final Rule (IFR) and the Identity Proofing requirements set by NIST to send controlled substances electronically. It allows a dentist to easily write controlled substances within their normal e-prescribing workflow and satisfy credentialing, security and technology requirements. DentiMax has integrated DrFirst’s Rcopia, the award winning CCHIT certified e-prescribing solution, along with EPCS Gold™ into its EMR to deliver the market’s leading e-prescribing platform for dentists.

“DrFirst is proud to have DentiMax as a partner and we’re pleased they’ve become the first Dental EMR in the U.S. to offer electronic prescribing of controlled substances. By providing e-prescribing with DrFirst’s EPCS Gold™, their EMR is truly helping dental practices receive the full benefits of improved patient safety, clinical functionality and true paperless workflow,” explained Zach Fox, Vice President of Partner Programs at DrFirst.

Aym Technologies, LLC developer of the leading human services solution, OnTarget®, and DrFirst, the leader in electronic prescribing and medication reconciliation, announced today that Aym Technologies has publicly launched a true “end-to-end” e-prescribing solution through its integration with DrFirst’s award-winning and Surescripts Gold Solution certified Rcopia™ e-prescribing technology.

This integration allows OnTarget® users to submit regulatory-compliant e-prescriptions to pharmacies through a real-time, fail-safe, clinical transaction network.

“Aym has demonstrated its leadership in this industry by bringing the benefits of electronic prescribing to healthcare professionals,” said G. Cameron Deemer, President, DrFirst, Inc. “We value their forward-thinking commitment to providing high quality information tools to improve the prescription-writing process for their providers and patients.”

“DrFirst’s industry-leading technology and commitment to complying with state, federal, and local government prescribing regulations will be a huge benefit to our clients,” said Lewis Quinn CEO of Aym Technologies. “The ePrescribe integration will allow doctors to be one step ahead of electronic prescribing mandates, provide a higher level of patient service and safety by minimizing potential adverse drug events, and will prove to be a critical component of managing the complex care needs of the diverse MH and I/DD population being served by our installed user base.”

Case studies suggest a savings of up to 2 hours per day for office staff with a faster, one click, multi-prescription renewal process. Additionally, by allowing this mission critical data to flow back to the OnTarget® EHR, agency staff at all levels can stay “plugged in” to the changing medication needs of the their clients. A valuable feature to an industry segment that routinely flows client treatment through as many as four different disciplines.

About DrFirst

Founded in 2000, DrFirst is the nation’s leading e-prescribing provider to physician practices, major health plans, health systems, hospitals, and EHR vendors. Through its Open Borders Program, DrFirst solutions are widely integrated with over 200 practice management and electronic health record systems. A Surescripts Gold Certified solution provider for four consecutive years with its award-winning Rcopia electronic prescription management system, DrFirst utilizes the Surescripts network for pharmacy connectivity, health plan information, and patient medication history. DrFirst is the first and only fully certified system to allow for e-prescribing of controlled substances by satisfying all DEA requirements, adhering to ID proofing requirements defined by NIST, and fulfilling Surescripts EPCS certification. For more information, visit http://www.drfirst.com.

I’ll preface this story by stating that the idea of drchrono is something that I really like.  An EHR system, built from the ground up to run on the iPad platform is daring stuff and I’m a big fan.

Today they’re announcing a set of new product offerings, the most important of which is free e-prescribing.   According to the announcement making this free e-prescribing feature available means that all of the functionality a doctor needs to qualify for Meaningful Use incentives is available through drchrono, and it’s free.

With these new features drchrono believes they have virtually eliminated the barriers to electronic health record adoption for small practices who otherwise may not have the full resources to achieve Meaningful Use.  The new products available in this latest app upgrade also include FreeDraw and faxing, directly from the drchrono iPad app.

“drchrono’s iPad Patient Care Platform helps me deliver better quality care by giving me unique clinical tools and the information I need at the point I need them,” said Surinder Saini, MD, a gastroenterologist in Newport Beach, CA. “The addition of FreeDraw and faxing to the platform – which includes a certified EHR app – enables me to have even richer, more productive conversations with my patients and colleagues.”

Michael Nusimow

“We are excited about our Patient Care Platform, which enables any physician with an iPad to eliminate paper records and also benefit from enhanced engagement with patients,” said Michael Nusimow, co-founder and CEO of drchrono. “It is our mission to design highly intuitive iPad and iPhone apps that empower physicians to improve care delivery and elevate the patient experience to build more meaningful doctor-patient relationships.”

The latest new offerings in the drchrono iPad EHR include:

• Free E-Prescribing—Writing prescriptions from the drchrono iPad app is now free for all users.  Select any drug, anytime – from anywhere – and send the prescription directly to the pharmacy for the patient to pick up.
• FreeDraw—With FreeDraw, a physician can do freehand, color-coded drawings on any document, including X-rays, skeletal diagrams, etc.  For example, a physician can circle an area on an X-ray, write a note, and then send the X-ray with the drawing on it to a referring physician or specialist for review.
• Faxing—Physicians can now send faxes from the drchrono iPad app or Web application. Simply select the option to send a fax directly from the patient’s record, enter a fax number, and attach a cover sheet with a personal note.

According to the company doctors using the drchrono Patient Care Platform for the iPad, have a complete set of tools to better assess symptoms and provide quality health information to patients in any easy-to-use, interactive manner. Driving patient education and offering the ability to draw freehand notes in the clinical record were top requests by drchrono’s users.

Today, more than 10,000 registered providers are using the drchrono Patient Care Platform. For more information on drchrono and its latest feature set, please visit www.drchrono.com.

Image via Wikipedia

Physicians now have an extra month to apply for a hardship waiver to avoid being penalized for not adopting e-prescribing in their practices, according to the final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Doctors who use a qualified e-prescribing system are eligible for an additional 1% in Medicare Part B payments in 2011 and 2012, and a 0.5% increase in 2013.  As you may have heard, that’s the carrot.  The stick come into play for physicians who fail to complete at least 10 paperless prescriptions using a qualified e-prescribing system between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2011.  They receive a 1% cut in Medicare reimbursements in 2012, a 1.5% cut in 2013, and a 2% cut in 2014.

In the proposed rule, issued in May, the  CMS said doctors who are unable to e-prescribe could apply for a hardship exemption before Oct. 1. In the final rule issued issued last week, the CMS announced those doctors now have until Nov. 1 to apply for an exemption.

The CMS is willing to issue exemptions for the following reasons:

• Physicians who see very few patients
• Physicians who practice in rural areas without sufficient high-speed Internet acces
• Physicians in areas without sufficient available pharmacies
• Physicians who have had limited prescribing activity during the six-month time frame
• Physicians practicing in an area where regulations hinder e-prescribing, such as in places that prohibit paperless orders for narcotics.

Physicians who are registered to participate in another electronic health records program — such as the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Program — will also be exempt from the 1% cut in reimbursement in 2012.

The complete final rule can be downloaded from here.