Experienced
medical practice administrators, like Debra Oselett of Rochester Hills,
Michigan, must be familiar with the Meaningful Use program, which was
instituted as part of the 2009 Health Information Technology for
Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). This program allows health
care providers to show meaningful use of certified Electronic Health
Records (EHR), which in turn earns incentive payments for eligible
providers.
The
Meaningful Use program has been instituted to encourage the adoption of
electronic health care records systems to create a widespread system
that provides top safety, quality, and efficiency of health care in
America. In order to be entitled to incentive payments, providers must
do more than just adopt an electronic health records system; they must
also prove the meaningful use of the system by meeting a certain number
of objectives established by the HITECH Act. These incentive payments
can range from $44,000 to $63,750 for Medicaid-directed meaningful use
programs. Medical providers who do not adopt an electronic health record
system and document meaningful use will receive less than 100% of their
Medicare fee schedule for their services.
The
EHR program applies to various medical statutes, one of which is
Medicare. Using the Medicare Meaningful Use Incentive program will grant
those monetary incentives to medical providers who have an EHR in place
and have proof of meaningful use. That proof spans a range of
thresholds for multiple objectives that can positively impact patient
care. Those medical providers can earn up to $44,000 in incentives from
the Medicare Meaningful Use program by meeting Medicare’s established
criteria for five consecutive years. This program was implemented to
help encourage high-quality medical practice. The EHR program have been
shown to have a positive impact on the medical field, which is why so
many steps have been taken to encourage it. In 2015, Medicare began
penalizing those medical providers who had not implemented an EHR system
by reducing those providers’ Medicare reimbursements.
The
Medicare Meaningful Use program considers the following as qualified
for the EHR incentive: chiropractors, doctors of dental medicine and
dental surgery, doctors of podiatric medicine, doctors of optometry, and
doctors of medicine or osteopathy. This incentive program is not
extended to most hospital-based providers, which are those providers
with 90% or more of their services based in emergency or hospital
inpatient settings. The exceptions to this rule are hospitals that are
Medicare Advantage affiliated hospitals, subsection d hospitals, and
critical access hospitals.
Debra Oselett and other prominent, skilled medical practice directors and
administrators have a thorough knowledge of the Health Information
Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, and especially the
Medicare component and guidelines associated with it. An administrator’s
familiarity with this act and its accompanying incentives can save the
medical office significant amounts of money.
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