Congress Letter to CMS Re Payment Cuts for Outpatient Physical Therapy Services
As reported in Physical Therapy Products, on August 9, Rep Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) sent a letter signed by 68 members of Congress to Donald Berwick, MD, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The letter expresses concern over CMS’s proposal to cut payment for outpatient physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology services in the CY 2011 physician fee schedule proposed rule.
The letter begins, “We write to you to express our concern over the significant cuts in payment for outpatient physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology services proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the CY 2011 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule.”
“The rehabilitation community strongly believes that a cut of 50 percent is unwarranted and is concerned that CMS’ proposed policy is based on a flawed assumption that there is duplication of services when rehabilitation services are billed. Therapy codes are unlike most other Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes in that the practice expense component for a typical visit is spread out among multiple codes since multiple services are typically provided to a patient during a visit,” says the letter.
The letter requests that a detailed explanation of the methodology CMS used to calculate the new rates be provided to Congress. Pomeroy also included a request that CMS work closely with stakeholders in the rehabilitation community toward the production of a final rule that will not adversely affect access to care, particularly in rural and other underserved areas.
“Given that this represents a significant cut to a group of services in the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and given the large number of Medicare beneficiaries who rely upon these therapies, we ask that CMS provide us with a detailed justification, including an explanation of the methodology used to calculate the new rates.”
New AOTA President, Florence Clark
On July 1, 2010, Florence Clark, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, became the 28th president of the American Occupational Therapy Association. Clark is brimming with great ideas on how to move occupational therapy into the spotlight and to achieve the goals of the Centennial Vision. The AOTA talked to Clark about her priorities for her term and other interesting tidbits in this interview.
Providence Speech and Hearing Center Implements Chart Links Electronic Therapy Documentation
Patients and Staff at Providence Speech and Hearing Center embrace and applaud the new and efficient electronic system
Chart Links, a provider of rehabilitation workflow management software, announces the implementation of its electronic therapy documentation and scheduling system by a team of 25 audiologists, speech therapists and pediatric occupational therapists at Providence Speech and Hearing Center, a not-for-profit and leading provider of services to the speech and hearing impaired of Orange County, California.
“The government is promoting the advancement of information technology to cut costs in the healthcare industry,” says Linda H. Smith, CEO of Providence Speech and Hearing Center. “By implementing Chart Links’ electronic medical record at Providence, we’re an active participant in that cost-cutting initiative. As healthcare continues to reform, Providence will be technically equipped to better service its patient population.”
Providence served over 29,000 appointments in 2009 to over 5,659 unique patients.
“The implementation has allowed Providence to gain efficiencies and see more patients, as well as to gather and monitor our clinical outcomes,” says Smith.
“The staff here at Providence has responded well to the transition and is looking forward to even more advantageous results in the coming months.”
Chart Links software streamlines all of the daily tasks associated with a patient’s physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, or audiology visits. The software manages adult and pediatric therapy treatment by automating evaluations, flow sheets, progress notes, patient education, clinical correspondence, and plans of care. It also manages payer compliance, provider reimbursement, outcomes reporting, administrative functions, business intelligence and enterprise productivity.
About Chart Links, LLC
For over 15 years, Chart Links has developed rehabilitation software that automates workflow for referrals, insurance authorizations, cross-discipline scheduling, documentation, charges, and more. Chart Links allows medical rehabilitation facilities to be more efficient and to provide a higher quality of care by delivering results in the areas of compliance, outcomes, analytics and revenue. For more information about Chart Links, you may access their web site at: http://www.chartlinks.com
About Providence Speech and Hearing Center
Founded in 1965 by Sister Margaret Anne Inman Ph.D., Providence Speech and Hearing Center is the leading service provider to the speech and hearing impaired of Orange County, California. With over 40 years of experience, Providence has grown from a one room house to a multi-million dollar non-profit organization. Providence served over 21,000 appointments in 2008 to over 3,200 unique patients. They offer a full array of speech and hearing services for children and adults alike; and, because they believe everyone deserves the gifts of speech and hearing, they accept most major insurance companies and medical groups as well as providing grants, scholarships and financing options for patients from low-income families. http://www.pshc.org
EHR Meaningful Use Final Rule Published Today
The final rule for meaningful use of electronic health records has been posted by The Department of Health and Human Services. Read all 864 pages here.
Margaret Mary Community Hospital Chooses Chart Links
MMCH Rehabilitation Center chooses Chart Links for niche-specific solution and hospital information system interface capabilities
Margaret Mary Community Hospital (www.mmch.org) in Batesville, Indiana, runs an off-site Outpatient Rehabilitation Center that handles more than 15,000 patient visits annually. The rehab facility employs 21 therapists providing physical, occupational, and speech therapies. Other services include work conditioning, sports medicine, balance, lymphedema, low vision and pediatric therapies. Aquatic therapy is offered at the local YMCA.
The rehab center had been using the hospital’s information system for documentation and billing and a manual, paper-based system for scheduling. Although the hospital system allowed some modification to accommodate documentation of the center’s special services, rehab center managers began to look for an end-to-end, niche-specific software solution that would assure documentation accuracy, improve workflow, save time, streamline scheduling and generally make life easier for a totally rehab-focused facility.
“We reviewed several different software options before narrowing our search to three companies,” said Carmen Pride, physical therapy manager and project manager on the search team. “After conducting extensive web demos and then comprehensive on-site demos of the three product finalists, we chose Chart Links. They definitely stood out and we especially liked the way their application looked.”
“We wanted to continue to use our primary EMR as the central point for our patients’ summary of care and billing records,” said Donna Nobbe, information systems director. “Therefore, our requirements for this project included a series of interfaces. Chart Links had experience doing this work with our hospital EMR vendor and provided valuable interface documentation.”
The MMCH Rehabilitation Center launched Chart Links in January 2009. “I totally expected the first day of ‘go live’ to be really crazy and haywire,” remarked Pride. “We sat in a room waiting to problem solve and expecting to help steer people through a hectic transition. But no problems came! That first day – and since – everything with the Chart Links system has been smooth and seamless. I’d recommend it to anyone.”
Chart Links solution exceeds rehab center’s expectations
MMCH has realized a full range of benefits, well beyond expectations:
Insurance reimbursement is significantly faster. Before, it took an average of 90 days until bills were sent out. Now, the timeframe is under 30 days. “This was made possible by the customized interface Chart Links created for us,” noted Pride. “Our billing is still distributed through Hospital’s primary EMR, but the Chart Links solution has streamlined and accelerated the process. We get our insurance monies in the door much more quickly now.”
Compliant documentation is more accurate and worry-free.
“We’re billing now with far less anxiety about errors because of Chart Links,” said Pride. “CCI edits, for example, have improved. Chart Links automatically notifies you of CCI edits so we don’t have to catch them on the backside or lose payments because we billed two procedures instead of one. Chart Links is our first line of defense, letting us know immediately if there’s a problem.”
Scheduling is more organized, streamlined and accurate.
Prior to Chart Links, the MMCH rehab facility scheduled manually with an appointment book (referred to as ‘the Bible’) which often resulted in confusion and error. “It was very unorganized,” said Pride. “There were too many therapists and not enough spaces to write in. Patients sometimes showed up when we didn’t expect them.”
The Chart Links solution has not only streamlined the scheduling process and cleaned up the errors but has also made the process completely user-friendly and intuitive. Unlike the other complicated-looking schedulers the rehab center management had considered, the Chart Links scheduler appears on the screen exactly like a book, a format the staff was very comfortable with. “The Chart Links scheduler was so easy to use and get used to that the staff abandoned ‘the Bible’ on day two of go-live rather than the six months they thought they would need to transition,” remarked Pride.
The workflow of the application makes sense, reflecting the way a therapist works and reports.
“Everything on the screen is organized and logical,” said Pride. “It’s Windows based operating system is a superior advantage. Print Preview, for example, depicts what the chart note will actually look like, a huge improvement over what we had. Even the range of motion measurements come out neater and, therefore, easier to read by the physician. Everything just looks better and flows better.”
The Chart Links Analytics option is a huge time-saver.
“With Analytics, you can look at specific programs and find out which ones are doing well or not,” noted Pride about the Chart Links ad-hoc reporting tool. “You can pull anything out of the system you want and analyze the data. Where month-end statistics would take an enormous amount of time to assemble with our old manual system, now we can run a report almost instantly.”
Customer service has been superb right from the start.
“Another major selling-point of Chart Links is their depth of rehab knowledge and their willingness and eagerness to share that expertise with us,” noted Pride. “We get very few vendors who have given us the customer service that Chart Links does,” said Trisha Prickel, manager of information system services. “They have responded to help desk questions at night and have been available to check the system after hours. I have been very impressed.”
2011 Proposed Physician Fee Schedule Rule Contains Proposed Pay Cuts for Outpatient Therapy Services
As reported by APTA.org, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the proposed physician fee schedule rule that would implement key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and update payment rates under the physician fee schedule for services furnished on or after January 1, 2011 (CY 2011).
If this rule becomes effective, physicians, physical therapists and other health care professionals would receive a 6.1% cut to their Medicare payments starting January 1, 2011 in addition to the 21.3% reduction that has been delayed several times already this year due to the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. This reduction was replaced with a 2.2% update until November 30, 2010, when the President signed the “Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010″ on Friday, June 25.
In addition to the projected reductions due to the SGR, CMS also proposes a multiple procedure payment reduction policy (MPPR) that would result in significant reductions in payment for outpatient therapy services. Specifically, CMS proposes to make full payment for the therapy service or unit with the highest practice expense value and payment of 50 percent of the practice expense component for the second and subsequent procedures or units of the service furnished during the same day for the same patient. The work and malpractice components of the therapy service payment would not be reduced. The proposed multiple procedure payment reduction policy would apply to both the services paid under the physician fee schedule (PFS) that are furnished in the office setting and those services paid at the PFS rates that are furnished by outpatient hospitals, home health agencies (Part B), skilled nursing facilities (Part B), comprehensive rehabilitation facilities, and other entities that are paid by Medicare for outpatient therapy services. It is estimated that if the multiple procedure payment reduction policy were implemented, payment for outpatient therapy services would be reduced by approximately 13% in addition to the projected SGR payment cut for CY 2011.
The APTA believes that CMS’s proposal to apply the multiple procedure payment reduction to outpatient therapy services is based on flawed presumptions and has no justification. The APTA states that it will aggressively work to stop implementation of the proposed MPPR policy and the SGR payment reductions.
Electronic Physical Therapy Documentation for Flow Sheets
Flow sheets are one form of documentation used by physical therapists in the daily notes for patient care. They provide a format for documenting exercises, repetitions and weights.
In Chart Links’ Rehabilitation Software, flow sheets provide electronic management of clinical data entry and review of patient progress over time. Flow sheets can accommodate multi-disciplinary documentation requirements and may be linked to progress notes and charges.
Visit the Chart Links website for more information about electronic physical therapy documentation.
Occupational Therapy Profession Supports First Lady’s Campaign
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), which represents the professional interests and concerns of more than 140,000 occupational therapists, assistants and students nationwide, released the following statement in response to First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, which aims to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
Dear Mrs. Obama,
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) supports primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention for the management of obesity. AOTA is firmly dedicated to promoting community health, increasing life expectancy, and improving the quality of life for all people. As such, we were thrilled to hear about your ambitious “Let’s Move” campaign.
As you already know, one-third of U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Obesity is the leading modifiable risk factor contributing to early mortality; type 2 diabetes; cardiovascular disease; metabolic syndrome; breast, prostate, and colon cancer; gallbladder disease; sleep apnea; musculoskeletal disorders; and associated limitations in physical activity.
Our current brand, “Living Life To Its Fullest™,” promotes the profession’s comprehensive approach to health, which covers psychosocial, physical, cognitive, and environmental barriers to full participation in life activities.
Within the United States, millions of people struggle and fail to achieve a healthy weight using current methods. However, occupational therapy’s holistic and unique focus on occupation and daily life activities offers structured intervention and support for the management of obesity across the life span regardless of ability. As practitioners, we enable people – of all ages – to live life to its fullest and will stand by you during this campaign to provide education and awareness about solutions to obesity.
Founded in 1917, the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) represents the professional interests and concerns of more than 140,000 occupational therapists, assistants and students nationwide. The Association educates the public and advances the profession of occupational therapy by providing resources, setting standards including accreditations and serving as an advocate to improve health care. Based in Bethesda, Md., AOTA’s major programs and activities are directed toward promoting the professional development of its members and assuring consumer access to quality services so patients can maximize their individual potential.
HealthPoint Rehab Chooses Chart Links as its EHR
HealthPoint Rehab (www.healthpointplaza.com), a service of Southeast Missouri Hospital, comprises two outpatient rehabilitation centers located in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, Missouri. Combined, the centers employ 25 therapists engaged in physical, occupational, speech and specialty therapies including orthopedic, neurological, myofascial and lymphedema. The two centers handle about 33,600 total patient visits annually.
Realizing the inexorable trend toward electronic medical records, the HealthPoint management team decided to abandon its paper-based system and make a comprehensive search for an advanced electronic solution.
“We knew the need for EMR was coming,” said Andrea Marchi, PT, MBA, CSCS, HealthPoint rehab manager. “We wanted to get ahead of the curve and have plenty of time to make the right decision. That’s when we began a search that led us to Chart Links – a choice we couldn’t be happier with.”
Chart Links offered a product customizable to HealthPoint’s suite of multi-discipline therapeutic services. “We needed a system that could effectively address and document our many different specialty areas and Chart Links was the only one that had this capability.”
A Compliant Documentation Process
Chart Links Rehabilitation Software is driven by major accreditation, professional, information technology and security standards. It supports compliance with JCAHO, CARF, AOTA, APTA, HIPAA and other rehabilitation professional standards. The system’s documentation helps ensure compliance with Medicare Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) Edits, modifiers and time tracking.
Marchi feels more at ease with proper documentation compliance. “Our compliance is virtually guaranteed because, in a progress note or evaluation section, Chart Links prompts for JCAHO and Medicare documentation in a way that you cannot miss or ignore.”
Unlike paper forms unable to force standards compliance, Chart Links’ electronic forms do not accept signatures without fulfillment of all required standards.
Better Business Decisions with Analytics
Chart Links Analytics allows managers to make informed business decisions through a simple-to-use ad hoc analysis interface that can analyze practice trends, develop universal metrics, measure long-term changes, and gather operational decision-support data.
“What could be a monumental task, taking weeks to accomplish by having to manually track and assemble mountains of data now is as simple as jumping into the system, defining your parameters and – click – up comes the data,” said Marchi. “It’s easy to read and understand. You don’t need any assistance from IT to make this happen. Chart Links Analytics is simply awesome.”
HealthPoint uses Chart Links Analytics for generating statistics for its annual report and as a basis to make good business decisions. Analytics allows HealthPoint, for example, to analyze visits (by location, by therapist, by time-period, etc.), dissect referrals, or scrutinize cancellation rates. “Chart Links Analytics helps us to stay ahead of the game, so we can make better decisions and not be reactive to what has already happened,” observed Marchi.
Routine Tasks Greatly Improved
Marchi also cites the user-friendly Chart Links scheduler as a key benefit. She notes that you can see all you need to see on one screen. Users can sort information by discipline or selected providers, or take a patient and click and copy for 15 visits instead of making 15 individual appointments. “The front desk has nothing but good things to say about the Chart Links scheduler,” remarked Marchi.
Chart Links Customer Service as Outstanding as its Technology
HealthPoint has found that the Chart Links solution extends into exceptional customer service. “The customer service we have received has been fantastic,” said Marchi. “There was no sense that, once we went live, ‘you’re on your own.’ Chart Links doesn’t operate that way. They don’t put limits on customer service. We feel we can call on them anytime. Chart Links consistently delivers on all counts.”
Just “Wright” or Just Plain Wrong?!
The President of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), R Scott Ward, PT, PhD, recently blogged about a movie that is getting both positive and negative attention in industry listservs.
“Just Wright,” in theaters May 14th, stars Queen Latifah as a physical therapist who — it appears from movie trailers — falls in love with and begins dating her NBA star patient. As this premise goes against the physical therapy Code of Ethics, much dialogue among PTs has been generated about Hollywood’s depiction of the profession.
The blog post covers what actions the APTA’s PR department has taken with the producers of the film to point out the eithical concern involving the plot. It also discusses a study from the April issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics to point out that the PT profession is not alone when it comes to entertainment industry portrayals that are less than accurate.
We suggest that you read the blog, see reactions from your colleagues and get involved in the dialogue prior too and after the movie is released on May 14th.
Extension of Therapy Cap Exceptions Process
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), on March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which extends the exceptions process for outpatient therapy caps (see Section 3103). Outpatient therapy service providers may continue to submit claims with the KX modifier, when an exception is appropriate, for services furnished on or after January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2010.
The therapy caps are determined on a calendar year basis, so all patients began a new cap year on January 1, 2010. For physical therapy and speech language pathology services combined, the limit on incurred expenses is $1,860. For occupational therapy services, the limit is $1,860. Deductible and coinsurance amounts applied to therapy services count toward the amount accrued before a cap is reached.
APTA Submits Comments on EHR Testing and Certification Process
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) recently submitted comments to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in response to a proposed rule that would establish a temporary program for the testing and certification of electronic health records (EHRs).
The proposed rule, released March 10, is the third and final step in the rulemaking process to establish the incentive payments program for the meaningful use of certified EHRs. While physical therapists are not currently eligible for incentive payments under the program, APTA’s comments were designed to ensure that the testing and certification processes established under the temporary program meet the needs of health care providers including physical therapists.
Comments on the permanent testing and certification programs are due May 10.
Source: APTA.org
CMS Announces Series of Nationwide RAC 101 Calls
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a series of “Nationwide RAC 101 Calls.” The calls, open to the public healthcare community, are scheduled for late April and early May as follows:
- April 28, 2010 1:00pm - 2:30pm EST: Nationwide RAC 101 Call, 1-877-251-0301
- May 4, 2010 1:00pm - 2:30pm EST: Nationwide RAC 101 Call for Home Health and Hospice Providers, 1-877-251-0301
- May 5, 2010 1:00pm - 2:30pm EST: Nationwide RAC 101 Call for DMEPOS, 1-877-251-0301
- May 12, 2010 1:00pm - 2:30pm EST: Nationwide RAC 101 Call for Physicians, 1-877-251-0301
For updated call schedule information, go to http://www.cms.gov/RAC/03_RecentUpdates.asp#TopOfPage
AMA Health System Reform Insight
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—health system reform legislation signed into law by President Obama on March 23—contains a number of key provisions for you and your patients. Some provisions may have an immediate impact on your practice and patients, while others will not take effect for some time.
Given the new direction for the nation’s health system, the American Medical Association (AMA) has developed Health System Reform Insight to help you understand
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the new law and how it will affect you
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when certain provisions are scheduled to take effect
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how you can be ready when the regulations go into effect
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what your patients need to know
You’re invited: Online question-and-answer session tonight with HHS on health reform
Tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern, you can participate in the first of a series of live weekly Web chats at www.hhs.gov/live, hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to gain a better understanding of the new health reform law.
All Americans have been invited to join top leaders from the HHS and across government tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern for the first in a series of weekly webcasts and discussions on the new health reform law. Broadcast live at www.hhs.gov/live, tonight’s Web chat will center around the latest news on health insurance reform implementation and how it impacts your life. Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mill will join HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to talk about immediate benefits from the new law and answer any questions on health system reform.
May is Better Hearing and Speech Month
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is promoting “Better Hearing and Speech” in the month of May. This annual event provides opportunities to raise awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding, or hearing.
For resources to help your facility celebrate Better Hearing and Speech month, go to http://www.asha.org/bhsm/
House Passes Health Reform
On March 21, 2010, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Also passed was H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, which contains additional refinements. Historically speaking, these two bills are perceived to be as important as the creation of the Medicare program.
April is Occupational Therapy Month
Each year in April, occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, and students in practice, education, research, and science host a month long celebration showcasing the importance of Occupational Therapy. It’s the time of year when everyone in the profession goes out of their way to tell the world about what they do.
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) encourages full participation in OT Month, and has made a number of tools available to make organizing efforts a little easier. Go to www.promoteot.com for more information.
Therapy Scheduling in Outpatient Rehab Facilities
The day begins and ends with a simple appointment. But, in outpatient rehabilitation facilities, the therapy scheduling process is not always so simple, is it?
You know what it takes — scheduling across multiple locations for multiple days with multiple providers often in multiple therapy disciplines. You need not only to book, but to double book and triple book when things get a little hectic – not to mention staggering, recurring, canceling, and re-booking missed therapy appointments.
From bump lists to wait lists – you see it all. Let’s face it, rehabilitation scheduling is complex.
The Chart Links Scheduler — complete with rehabilitation templates — is built to ensure that patients are appropriately slotted to see who they need, when they need them, with the right resources, in the right place. Scheduling activities for patients and classes/groups with providers, equipment, locations and user-defined resources are supported.
Unlike other general medical schedulers, Chart Links has designed its scheduler around the needs of medical rehabilitation facilities. Inherent in the scheduler is the ability to schedule by cross-discipline. There is also an ability to schedule the patient with multiple therapists or resources in one easy-to-use feature (i.e., PTA with PT, OTA with OT, speech therapist with audiologist, or audiologist with hearing/screening booth and with audioscope).
To learn more about therapy scheduling through Chart Links, click here.
Chart Links Participates in PT Products’ Software Roundtable
Jim Hammer, COO of Chart Links, was invited again this year to participate in a software roundtable interview with editor of Physcal Therapy Products, Arati Murti. Here are a few of the questions and answers that were exchanged in the January 2010 edition:
PT Products: Budgets are tight in today’s economy; what are practice managers focused on in terms of software features/needs?
Jim Hammer: They’re focused on what really counts-features that provide a tangible return on investment: Compliance in coding and charting that will reduce payor denials and audits; reduce lost charges and increase revenue opportunity; Denial and revenue cycle management that will increase cash flow; and Automation of manual workflow processes (like referral and plan of care management) to create operational efficiencies and reduce labor costs.
PT Products: In what features/business areas can managers save money/time? (What software features can be used differently or combined?)
Jim Hammer: By using software to reduce the phone calls and faxing associated with physician approval of therapist-generated plans of care, both time and money can be saved. At one of our hospital-affiliated outpatient centers, both therapists and physicians were documenting electronically. However, the authorization process between the two systems required manual intervention with printing, sorting, bundling, faxing, scanning, and data input. Chart Links created a real-time interface to eliminate the manual paper chase in the workflow. By eliminating backlogs of unauthorized paper plans of care, the client has delivered quicker continuity of care (time) and has reduced billing delays (money).
PT Products: What’s the most challenging business “bottleneck” that you hear of from your customers, and how can software help avoid that situation?
Jim Hammer: Plan of care authorization management is still a manually burdensome and paper-laden process in our industry. Time is lost making phone calls, printing, signing, faxing, and waiting for paper forms to be authorized. With a Health Level 7 (HL7) interface and workflow automation, this process can be transformed into the electronic age to avoid the unnecessary paper chase.
PT Products: In terms of software needs in 2010, what are the important differences in concerns for hospitals/facilities versus private practices?
Jim Hammer: Data exchange. Hospital-affiliated outpatient rehabilitation centers must focus on how they will connect to the hospital information system and to local area referring physicians via Health Level 7 (HL7) interfaces. Standards and definition around health information exchange will be critical in the coming year.
CMS & ONC Issue Regs Proposing Definition of Meaningful Use and Setting Standards for EHR
The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) encourage public comment on two regulations issued on December 30, 2009 that lay a foundation for improving quality, efficiency and safety through meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology. The regulations will help implement the EHR incentive programs enacted under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act).
A proposed rule issued by CMS outlines proposed provisions governing the EHR incentive programs, including defining the central concept of “meaningful use” of EHR technology.
An interim final regulation (IFR) issued by ONC sets initial standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for EHR technology. Both regulations are open to public comment.
- The CMS proposed rule and fact sheets, may be viewed at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Recovery/11_HealthIT.asp
- ONC’s interim final rule may be viewed at http://healthit.hhs.gov/standardsandcertification
The Recovery Act established programs to provide incentive payments to eligible professionals and eligible hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid that adopt and make “meaningful use” of certified EHR technology. Incentive payments may begin as soon as October 2010 to eligible hospitals. Incentive payments to other eligible providers may begin in January 2011.