Endocrine Insider
January 21, 2010

(See Full Issue)

The American Medical Association has developed a summary document for physicians highlighting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposal to develop criteria for the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR).

In early 2009, Congress passed legislation that would allow physicians to become eligible for up to $44K in incentive payments if they become “meaningful users” of a “certified” EHR. Physicians who do not adopt a certified EHR system will face a reduction in their Medicare fee schedule payments of -1 percent in 2015, -2 percent in 2016, and -3 percent in 2017 and beyond. Exceptions for significant hardships will be made on a case-by-case basis.

The AMA summary provides information about the amount of physicians’ eligible incentive payments based on years of participation and details the first stage of a three-stage requirement for physicians to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs. Stage one criteria include: 1) electronically capturing health information in a coded format; 2) using that information to track key clinical conditions and communicating that information for care coordination purposes (whether that information is structured or unstructured, but in a structured format whenever possible); 3) implementing clinical decision support tools to facilitate disease and mediation management; and 4) reporting clinical quality measures and public health information. Information on stages two and three will be defined by CMS in the future. Additional details are included in the AMA summary.

The Endocrine Society announced last year that it had developed an agreement with EHR vendor eClinicalWorks to offer a benefit to Society members who want to implement health IT in their practices. Through this special arrangement, members of The Endocrine Society are eligible to receive a 10 percent discount on the license fee for eClinicalWorks Electronic Medical Records and Practice Management (EMR&PM) Unified Upfront Solution. Members can consider this discount program when researching which products and services may best help them comply with CMS’ requirements for meaningful use of EHR. Information on eClinicalWorks and its discount for Society members can be found at www.eclinicalworks.com or by calling 508-836-2700.

The Endocrine Society will continue to provide updates on this important clinician issue in future issues of Endocrine Insider. Questions can be directed to Holly Whelan, Associate Director of Health Policy at hwhelan@endo-society.org.