The recently published PriceWaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute report, Ready or Not: On the Road to the meaningful use of EHRs and health IT, has circulated through the blogmasters desk, and in our continuing effort to keep you informed, we’ve produced the following abstract…

After surveying 120 CIO’s and another handful of healthcare executives, the PwC report adds heft to the impact of the ARRA’s Meaningful Use (MU).

The report makes many keen assertions including:

• “Health systems will need to transform the way they deliver care, so they can sustain performance and grow revenue in the future.”
• Successfully achieving meaningful use “hinges on closer integration with key constituents” (physicians, health insurers, patients).
• Health systems that already have connected with physicians, patients, and health insurers around MU are “more likely to be applying for government incentives” than those that haven’t. But only half of respondents expected to apply for incentives in 2011. (By 2014, 90% expect to be applying).
• Health systems that have included patients in the planning are “more confident about meeting MU standards.”
• “Implementing MU can enhance hospital-physician alignment.”
• Most health systems are failing to connect with health insurers around MU.
• 80% of CIO’s are more than concerned about meeting MU requirements by deadlines. (An American Hospital Association survey reports that 55% of hospitals expect to incur penalties.)
• “The benefits of achieving MU outweigh the challenges.” Those benefits include improve healthcare quality, disease management, coordination of care, improved alignment with physicians, increased productivity, market advantage, and improved alignment with payers.

But PwC identified four barriers to attaining MU: Lack of MU standards clarity, shortage of skilled IT staff, vendor readiness, limited capacity of existing infrastructure . . .

and proffered five benchmarks to achieve compliance: Establish governance, balance compliance against competing priorities, forge new public-private ventures, make the patient the purpose, collaborate with physicians and health insurers.

By: Mary Ann Ciccone

As part of ARRA, Medicare and Medicaid will provide reimbursement incentives to physicians and hospitals who become “meaningful users” of EMR. This effort will begin in 2011 and end by 2015 at which time all providers will be expected to utilize EMR. Changes will be implemented in stages and include data sharing, compliance with HIPPA and state laws, evidence based order sets, the engagement of patients and families, and care coordination. The final draft recommendations that will define meaningful use were published by the ONC for Health IT in December 2009. Eligible facilities and providers can incorporate these guidelines into projects currently in progress to meet the requirements.  

The result of following the meaningful use guidelines for all stages will be improved and more efficient patient care through the use of disease prevention and reduction of medication errors, greater communication between providers, efficiency in meeting reporting mandates and claims submissions, and lower healthcare costs.

 The recommendations for Stage 1 are listed below.

Source: HHS website for meaningful use.

Just in case you haven’t been able to find it one of the other dozens of sites publishing the link here is the HITECH: Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for EHR Technology and here’s how you get paid (warning 556 pages).

Mr. HISTalk summarized the finer or most relevant points here. And over at HealthcareITNews.com “Stakeholders have mixed reviews on proposed requirements” while Government HealthIT profiles groups that aren’t happy with the definition.  

We all knew it’d be a mixed bag right? What do you think of the proposal? Have you (are you) going to read it or will you just look for an effective summary? Let us know what your thoughts and questions are in the comment section.

By: Susan Sitarchuk, Healthcare Executive

While the majority of Health Facilities CIOs and Executives are scrambling to get information on accredited EMR systems and to get a handle on what is truly defined as “Meaningful Use” there exists another population of Healthcare Executives who are actually seeing the money. Who are these lucky people? These folks are the people who struggled endlessly prior to February 2009 and ARRA to get government sponsored funds: the Grant Department of Health Facilities and Teaching Hospitals.

In the old days, prior to February 2009, the grant writers would have to jump through large hoops to secure funding for the clinical studies and research that is so vital to healthcare. They were in charge of putting together volumes of documentation that were sent to the governing bodies that dole out federal grant monies. This process could take months to acquire all of the correct documentation to secure the most funding and while compiling all of the information needed, the health facilities may not have received any of the intended monies at the end of this road because the funding had run dry.

Well times have changed. These folks are now able to more easily write a grant request and go after the money made available by ARRA. Here is the nice part; they are actually getting the funding very quickly. There is a sum of grant money that was made available by the US government under the ARRA and each month the government website is updated with new grants. Through ARRA states have allotted grant money for particular research and studies.

The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has received more than $30 million in research funding from ARRA, awards that fund more than 100 studies in gene therapy, robotics, public education, neurological disorders, tobacco’s effect on health, and more. One such award is a $500,000 NSF grant to continue research into haptography, the science of capturing and recreating the feel of real surfaces. Not only does the field appeal to young scientists and encourages engineering careers, but the applications are widespread and include robotics assisted surgery, medical training and simulation, interactive museum exhibits, online shopping, and stroke rehabilitation. Other grants that UPenn has been awarded enable the purchase of high end instrumentation equipment to be used for biomedical research. Also, grants were awarded to supplemental research into the genome and for upgrades to core facilities to support biomedical and/or behavioral research.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; more funds are being released on a daily basis. Due to ARRA, 2010 should continue to deliver positive growth in the research arena. Healthcare facilities need to get organized and go after these funds. HIT departments must, regularly, pursue federally funded grant money as well as the monies that they will be eligible for when they have an accredited EMR system and can prove “meaningful use” of that product. With more money available for research grants and improvements in IT, the economy and our health have a better future.