On November 16, 2012, US Representative Diane Black introduced a new bill termed the “Electronic Health Records Improvement Act”. This amendment act was created to specify those ASCs that would be exempt from application for inventives and distribution of penalties. It outlines a number of other factors such as size and physician specialty as noteworthy factors in this federal procedure. In 2009, with the passage of the HITECH Act, Medicare and Medicaid programs were instructed to distribute special incentives to ASC physicians so as to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records among providers, and thus work toward the creation of a national health care infrastructure. Many ASC physicians working in small, private centers have not been able to qualify as “meaningful users” due to a lack of resources in comparison to the multi faceted incentive programs of hospitals. The second section of the bill exempts ASC physicians nearing retirement from applying for Medicare incentives, and thus, demonstrating EHR meaningful use.  In further sections, the bill calls for a shortened EHR reporting period, an appeals process prior to application of penalties, semi-annual reports to proactively monitor progress, as well as a number of amendments to the original HITECH Act.

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Exception for certain eligible professionals from application of Medicare payment adjustment for not demonstrating EHR meaningful use.
Sec. 3. Shortening EHR reporting period for application of Medicare EHR payment adjustment to eligible professionals.
Sec. 4. Additional exceptions to application of Medicare payment adjustment for certain Medicaid and hospital-based eligible professionals not demonstrating EHR meaningful use.
Sec. 5. Certain specialty registry systems for purposes of eligible professionals satisfying meaningful use requirements under Medicare.
Sec. 6. Enhancing Medicare EHR meaningful use among eligible professionals who are rural health care providers.
Sec. 7. Improving EHR meaningful use under Medicare by ambulatory surgical centers.
Sec. 8. Exemption from certain EHR meaningful use requirements for certain eligible professionals for purposes of Medicare payment adjustment.
Sec. 9. Additional administrative provisions relating to Medicare eligible professionals’ EHR incentives.
Sec. 10. Non-application of provisions and amendments to eligible professional Medicare incentives for certain MA organizations and Medicaid incentives for adoption and meaningful use of certified EHR technology.

For a full, comprehensive description of each section, click here.

Electronic Health Records have become a major success within the National Football League (NFL). Used by all 32 teams in the NFL, EHRs are currently being utilized to quickly streamline data as well as coordinate care procedures for players suffering from either a sudden game day injury or in recovery habilitation. The EHR system was specially designed to include additional video replay abilities so as to enable coaches and team physicians to more quickly and accurately diagnose the injury. After a serious impact, team physicians can quickly access that player’s health records from a portable tablet, such as a cell phone, Ipad, or laptop. According to NFL President Tony Yates, “We are always looking for innovative ways to enhance healthcare within the organization. Electronic health records are the next logical step…”. It’s anytime, anywhere portability makes it a perfect solution for the fast-moving, high injury rate of the NFL. According to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, there has been a growing concern over the number of sport-related injuries, primarily concussions. The success of the EHR’s streamlining capabilities has sparked the production of many other developments, such as helmet accelerator monitors used to gauge the impact of a hit. Goodell reports that the NFL teams now use, and strongly rely on EHR and integrated video streamlining for every game. According to Yates, “Team medical staffs are raving about it”.

Wishing all of our clients a safe and happy holiday season. We appreciate your service!

The 3 Stages of the EHR Investment Process and How to Maximize your Investment

Stage 1: Hesitation

One of the most common fears regarding the EHR conversion process is the monthly cost commitment and concern of additional hidden fees. Further, front office staff members are already met with a diverse range of responsibilities, and so many facilities view the in-house scanning training as just another burden on their office managers. Plus, hospitals, surgery centers and small physician offices are already faced with overwhelming deadlines to meet other IT standards such as Meaningful Use, accountable care programs, and ICD10 Billing code systems.

Stage 2: Embracing the EHR

Many healthcare facilities eventually overlook the initial hassle associated with converting to a new workflow plan. After considering the EHR system’s wide realm of financial and time-saving benefits, centers can no longer afford to procrastinate upon EHR conversion if they plan to remain a fiscally competitive healthcare provider. Additionally, quality care measures define EHR conversion as an absolute requirement in order to qualify for annual HIPAA-based incentives. And so the cloud service provider is selected, the terms are discussed, and the documents are scanned.

Stage 3: So, now what? Make the most of your EHR Investment!

And finally – The EHR system is intact, operations are smooth, and HIPAA incentives are ready to be opened in the mail. Yet the question soon arises, how centers can best maximize the time and cost investments of converting to EHRs? American Medical News addresses this growing concern by shedding light on the three most neglected EHR programs: patient portals, e-prescribing, and electronic appointment scheduling. One example of successful patient initiative and personal healthcare accountability derives from the IMass Memorial Healthcare System in Massachusetts.  All from the comfort of their own home, this healthcare system allows diabetic patients to both routinely test their blood glucose and instantly send computer-generated results to UMass’ secure Allscrpts EHR database.  By simply connecting the blood sugar monitor with any computer device, this once mundane, multi-step process can now be quickly completed in just a matter of seconds. Further, the ability to e-prescribe patientt medications has resulted in a 10% incline in patients’ more conssitently filling and picking up their medications.

Although met with secruity and cost fears, electronic-based healthcare proves itself to be safe, economically prudent, and well worth the initial invetment and manpower.

HIPAA statistics indicate that an overwhelming number of physicians have deferred implementing Stage 1 objectives concerning interopatability. Consequently, physicians will have to work even harder to meet these deferred Stage 1 measures in addition to fulfillig those objectives from Stage 2. The table below lists the most commonly deferred Stage 1 Meaningful Use items and their corresponding deferral rate.

84% Summary of care transition

80% Send reminders to patients

68% Syndromic surveillance

66%: Timely electonic access for patients

55%: Medication reconciliation

50%: Patient education resource

38%: Incoporate lab results

25% : Patient Lists

21% Immunizations

15%: Drug formulary checks

The main requirement of Stage 2 requires physicians to help patients better access, view and exchange data from their online records. Thus far, trends indicate that physicians are inclined to defer items that most largely disrupt to the ease of their past work-flow. The three main goals of Meaningful Use to be accomplished by 2014 include:

1) Increased urgency that vendors integrate technological changes in order to fulfill all deferred Stage 1 and new Stage 2 objectives

2) Help pateints become more technologically savvy: 50% of patients will be expected to download their health records onlne

3) Encourage all other third party patient heath services to integrate technological updates so as to create a thriivng online communication network for receiving, sending, and exchanging data.

Up to this point, $2.6 billion has already been distributed to over 251,000 physicians to account for their compliance of Stage 1 Meaningful Use objectives. Do you think the above ratio of 2.6 billion to 251,000 physcians will see an increase after the 2014 completion of Stage 2? Stage 2′s outcome will show us just how much money talks to healthcare professionals…

The FDA’s Unique Identifier System
Ever since the circulation of a 1999 report declaring 100,000 patient deaths to be the result of preventable medical errors, the FDA has been working to create a unified system of medical coding. This statistic proves that risk of error associated with manual data entry can no longer be afforded as it puts lives in jeopardy. The unique device identifier (UDI) system will monitor the implementation of medical devices to assist with recall management and adverse event reporting. Further, it is hoped to more efficiently manage supply chains and data capturing systems. With this new UDI coding system, it will be critical for centers to direct their efforts towards the total cost of the supply chain while keeping in mind that products will be standardized into different classification categories, and thus, impacted at different times. Finally, the UDI System will be programmed to require that physicians not only label all devices, but provide pertinent multi-field device descriptions as well. Finally, in accordance with the project’s motive of disaster prevention, the UDI system ensures product scanning to be technology-neutral.

Crystal Stairs
In entrusting Global Archives to manage data within a secure hosting network, Crystal Stairs has been able to increase infrastructural efficiency while conserving budget costs squandered away on endless paper printing, offsite data storage and record retrieval.  With California’s ongoing budget crisis and realignment proposal, government licensed childcare providers have dropped about 45 percentiles within California’s funding formula, equivalent to about $184.2 million! This statewide budget crisis has enthused a rise in political advocacy from a wide range of senators, the LA County Board of Supervisors, as well as Crystal Stairs, a government and privately funded childcare provider organization. Through the advocacy of Crystal Stairs’ Community Voices project, both parents and childcare providers have been able to voice their hardships to politiicans in Sacramento. Whether time is ticking in the emergency room or on the floor to pass new government measures, time is the common variable. The difference of only a couple seconds has the power to predetermine the fate of millions of lives, and in each such circumstance, immediate data retrieval has proved to be invariantly critical.

“Improving the Lives of Families through Child Care Services, Research and Advocacy”

Contact UsPhone: 1.877.257.7226 ext 804

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What’s New at Global Archives?New to Lockbox? Check out Global Archives’ newest addition to our website: An all-inclusive Lockbox Demo Video (access by clicking on the “demo” tab). Global Archives hopes to further answer any of your additional questions regarding Lockbox through a number of accompanying short, 30-second videos. While you’re at it, check our data-sheets option added under our Media tab to view samples as converted on Lockbox.

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For more information,

contact Irina Ustyan

Call 1.877.257. 7726 ext 804

or email iustyan@globalarchives.net