Diving into the Deep Waters of EHRs
By Nicki Harris

If your hospital dove into the deep waters of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) incentive programs in 2011, the HHS has granted you one additional year to meet Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 requirements.

Joe Kuchler, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said: "Under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs, providers who attest early receive greater incentives. And now those providers who first attest in 2011 can get three payment years for meeting the Stage 1 expectations, while those first attesting in 2012 can only get two payment years under Stage 1 criteria." ¹

This decision by the HHS reflects its understanding of the importance of implementing well designed systems that strive to promote high standards of patient care. It acknowledges the time and talent required to produce those systems. This extension is a boon to those healthcare facilities struggling to meet incentive requirements due to lack of resources, whether human or financial.

According to HHS reports, over 50,000 health IT-related jobs have been created since the enactment of the HITECH Act in 2009 and an additional 20 percent increase is expected from 2008 to 2018. If you are a Healthcare-IT professional in the trenches, these numbers may surprise you. My initial reaction was to assume this number is overstated for political propaganda purposes. Really? 50,000 health IT-related jobs? Where are the bodies being hidden? And why are hospitals hurting for experienced and talented IT staff to help them meet the EHR incentive requirements if 50,000 people have been added? But, that’s a discussion for another article.

A visit to the CMS.gov website shows that as of November 2011, there were 2,868 hospitals actively registered in the EHR incentive program, a net 998 of which received incentive payments either under Medicare only, Medicaid only, or both (215). The website reports total YTD payments (November 2011) of $1,829,246,574.00. The average payment for the reporting period was $1,832,912.00.

Many hospitals chose to wait to attest to meeting requirements because they opted for additional time to get their systems designed and implemented. Knowing the scope and complexity of what is involved in meeting the EHR incentive requirements, I have to wonder if the 2011 attesters did not already have a system in the works before the current administration thought of it; so were those hospitals actually rewarded for doing something they had the forethought to implement? Regardless, the EHR incentive program is a good thing because an EHR is a good thing; ultimately saving hospitals billions of dollars in information sharing, reporting, decision-making, and more importantly, improving patient safety and care.

If you would like more information about EHRs or meeting Meaningful Use guidelines, please contact us at 610.444.1233, vcs@getvitalized.com, or visit www.getvitalized.com.

^{1 http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/232200656}

^{2 http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/11/20111130a.html}