On February 17, 2009 a $787 Billion, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Stimulus Bill), was signed into law by the federal government. Included in this law is $19.2 Billion which is intended to be used to increase the use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) by physicians and hospitals; this portion of the bill is called the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act or HITECH Act. You can find the text of this bill here.
Why did the government pass this law? Why is it important?
Extensive research shows that utilizing an EHR would serve to improve patient care, increase patient safety and simplify compliance in the US healthcare system. Additionally, it would help cut costs in the long term, as it would minimize errors, increase productivity and administrative efficiency.
For additional information on the potential benefits and savings associated with investing in an EMR system, the following link provides a good reference: HealthAffairs.org
To further understand the benefits of investing in an oncology specific EMR system that go far beyond government incentives, please click MOSAIQ ROI
What does the HITECH Act mean to physicians and hospitals? What incentives are available to me?
$17 Billion of funds available through the HITECH Act will be used for incentive payments to physicians and hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs. These incentives will be issued to current users and new adopters of certified EMR systems, who use the system in a meaningful way. To view the most recent release from CMS on meaningful use please click here. In order to demonstrate meaningful use, a practice or hospital must be using a certified system. The government is now accepting applications for organizations who are interested in being appointed as a certifying body, but it is important to note that no official certification body has yet been chosen.
Medicare - Physicians seeing Medicare patients can receive up to $44K over the course of 5 years. An additional 10% is available to physicians operating in a designated Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), for more information go to www.hpsafind.hrsa.gov. The general depiction of the payout schedule is in the following table.
Medicaid - Physicians whose caseloads include at least 30% Medicaid patients are eligible to receive up to $63,750 over the course of 6 years. Physicians cannot obtain incentives from both Medicaid and Medicare, but hospitals can.
Hospitals - Hospitals can receive a base payment of up to $2M initially. Additional incentives are available according to a formula based on discharges, year of adoption etc., with a cap at $6M.
The remaining $2 Billion will be dispersed as grants and loans to promote advancements in healthcare information technology (HIT) and improve accessibility to HIT in underprivileged areas. For more information on HITECH funding opportunities click here.
What happens if I don’t adopt an EMR system?
After 2015, further financial incentives will not be available and penalties will kick in. There will be a 1% reduction in Medicare fees per year, up to 3% by 2017.
Where do I begin? How do I start thinking about this process to ensure that I have thought everything through?
The sooner you adopt an EMR system, the more incentive funds that will be available to you. We have made every effort to make the transition to an electronic charting environment a seamless process for our customers and are offering special incentives to encourage the adoption of the MOSAIQ EMR system.
For more information about our suite of products, please contact sales, or call (888) 464 6722.
Additionally, we have made every effort to make the transition to an electronic charting environment a seamless process for our customers and are offering special incentives to encourage the adoption of the MOSAIQ EMR system.
Not sure whether your center will qualify? Gain peace of mind with STRATEGIQ Services. To learn more, contact us at strategiqservices@elekta.com.
