We provide help to independent medical practices seeking to streamline their organization and put technology to good use. Recently I have asked the doctors that I work with to give me the major issues facing them at this time. It seems there is some agreement in the top two.
Once an independent practice has decided to use EMR technology in their office, their next motivation is clearly related to Meaningful Use attestation. The next phase is implementing the system they purchased, maximizing its use, and successfully attesting to CMS for Meaningful Use dollars.
CMS is scheduled to send approximately $2billion to physicians and hospitals or (eligible providers) in the next few years. Almost 200,000 have registered to participate in the program. The rush is on this year to qualify for full funding beginning October 1, 2012. This means that thousands of doctors will be submitting their attestation in the second half of this year. So far only a small percentage have been unsuccessful in their submission. All hospitals thus far have passed according to CMS.
The second area of interest is how care coordination will look in the next few years. Moving to a different mindset from the past is a difficult shift for the entire health care business. It is imperative that physicians and hospitals work closely with others to be able to document the quality of care which in the end will lead to higher reimbursements. Using digital data and having greater teamwork with other area physicians will greatly improve care for a patient. But leveraging that data is the is the key.
The coordination of care and outcomes based care will surely be a benefit to the health our country. It’s not hard to predict that paper records will not exist in 10 years
