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  • Patient Portals an EHR Necessity

    Patient Portals an EHR Necessity

    Ron Sterling Sterling Solutions Author: Keys to EMR/EHR Success Why Are Patient Portals More Important Than You Think? Patient portals facilitate the exchange of information between patients and physician practices. What was once considered a nice option for your EHR is becoming a necessity. Unfortunately, not all patient portals offer the same features. Failure to [...]

    January 25, 2012 More
  • Tune In to MU Live!

    Tune In to MU Live!

    Have 30 minutes? Tune in and listen to MU Live! MU Live! is a 30 minute talk radio style show hosted by our HITECH Answers experts. Our session experts discuss breaking news and issues on meaningful use as well as other health IT topics. Register to participate and listen in to our next show. January 31, [...]

    January 20, 2012 More
  • Tune in to The EHR Zone

    Tune in to The EHR Zone

    There is a new dimension, beyond that which is known to physician. It is a dimension as vast as any medical clinic and as timeless as your patient records. It is the middle ground between workflow and patient experience, between implementation of new technology and reality. It is an area which we call The EHR Zone. [...]

    January 19, 2012 More
  • Feb. 29 EHR Incentive Program Deadline

    Feb. 29 EHR Incentive Program Deadline

    CMS Reminders on EHR Incentive Program Dates CMS has issued a reminder on important upcoming dates in the EHR Incentive Program for Eligible Professionals. The reporting period ended on December 31, 2011 for EPs who participated in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program in 2011. If you participated in the program this means you completed 90 [...]

    January 18, 2012 More

News & Updates

ONC announces new i2 Challenge

ONC announces new i2 Challenge

In December 2010 the America Competes Act was passed in response to President Obama’s call for agencies to “increase their ability to promote and harness innovation by using policy tools such as awards and competitions”. The Act allows agencies to create and initiate competitions that invoke innovation and award prizes. Through this Act the ONC [...]

January 27, 2012 More
Upcoming Health Care and Medical Conferences

Upcoming Health Care and Medical Conferences

Does the HIMSS conference have you thinking about other conferences to consider this Spring? Check out some great upcoming events. 18th Annual Wharton Health Care Business Confernce, February 16-17 in Philadelphia, PA A leading health care business forum for industry professionals, academics, and students. This year’s theme is “Innovation in a Changing Health Care Environment” [...]

January 26, 2012 More
Meaningful Use and Data Entry Into a Certified EHR

Meaningful Use and Data Entry Into a Certified EHR

Does Meaningful Use require the physician be the one to enter patient data into a certified EHR? One intriguing Meaningful Use question arrived by email last week. The question boiled down to this: “Does the Eligible Professional have to actually be the one that enters data into their Certified EHR to receive the CMS incentives? [...]

January 24, 2012 More
Health Information Exchanged Between States

Health Information Exchanged Between States

Health Information Exchange (HIE) is a key part of EHR adoption and achieving the goals of the HITECH Act. The exchange must be secure and between authorized stakeholders in the healthcare community. The goals are to improve the delivery of patient care by removing the communication barriers between the stakeholders with a single sign on [...]

January 23, 2012 More
Wisconsin REC Explains EHR Medicaid Program

Wisconsin REC Explains EHR Medicaid Program

Marni Anderson Health IT Specialist, Wisconsin Health Information Technology Extension Center (WHITEC) www.whitec.org Wisconsin launched its Medicaid EHR Incentive Program in August 2011. In the last several months I’ve had the opportunity to work with many small, independent practices and solo providers as they sort through the specifics of the program in our state. Time [...]

January 20, 2012 More
Meaningful Use Attestation and CQM Reporting

Meaningful Use Attestation and CQM Reporting

Escape Hatch for Electronic Submission of Clinical Quality Measures for Meaningful Use It is there in black and white on page 68 of the Final Rule “Therefore, for the Medicare EHR incentive program beginning in CY 2012 we proposed that an EP using a certified EHR technology or beginning in FY 2012 an eligible hospital [...]

January 19, 2012 More
A New Year for EHR Adoption Resources

A New Year for EHR Adoption Resources

EHR Adoption Resources Expand for 2012 The new year has brought about some recent changes and developments to HITECH Answers.  The most significant of these changes is our partnership with UMB Medica, one of the largest media companies in the U.S. serving the healthcare industry. Through this partnership our content will now be delivered to [...]

January 17, 2012 More
Mostashari Weighs in on 2011

Mostashari Weighs in on 2011

Dr. Farzad Mostashari took the reigns of the ONC back in April from being the Deputy ONC for Blumenthal. It has now been two years now since the Proposed Rules were released which included what was to be Stage 1 of the CMS EHR Incentive Program. This past year has been quite a year for [...]

January 16, 2012 More
Year End EHR Incentives Status

Year End EHR Incentives Status

Just the Facts from Joe Friday on EHR Incentives The numbers you are about to see are all true… As of the end of 2011 123,921 Eligible Professionals have registered for EHR Incentives, 15,255 have successfully attested to meaningful use in the Medicare program. 3.077 Eligible Hospitals have registered EHR Incentives and 604 of those have successfully [...]

January 13, 2012 More
More Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs Open

More Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs Open

Two additional States have launched their Medicaid EHR Incentive programs already this year. On January 2nd both Colorado and Kansas opened registration for their programs. The Arizona REC announced that the recently launched Arizona program will be accepting attestation today on the 12th. The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) will accept the attestations [...]

January 12, 2012 More