The federal government, which strongly supports EMRs, has touted bonuses to physicians who go electronic. A new survey shows just how interested the health care community is in such financial motivation. Forty-one percent of office-based physicians and four in five hospitals plan to take advantage of federal incentive payments for adoption and meaningful use of full-featured, certified EMRs, according to the survey, issued Jan. 13 by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

Another inducement is from the Medicare electronic prescription incentive program, created by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 and started Jan. 1, 2009. The five-year program provided a payment to eligible physicians equal to 2% of their total Medicare payments for the year in 2010. The amount is 1% in 2011 and 2012, then will dip to 0.5% in 2013.

While that is a positive step, there also are penalties for those who do not adopt E Prescription systems. A new regulation, which took effect Jan. 1, says eligible practices should meet e-prescribing criteria in at least 10 Medicare office visits between Jan. 1 and June 30. If they don’t, they will pay the government a penalty equal to 1% of their Part B earnings in 2012. The entire 2011 calendar year will determine punishment for 2013.

The American Medical Association and 103 state and specialty medical societies have raised concerns about the penalty and are fighting to revise the policy. In a Dec. 9, 2010, letter to Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, they take issue with the timing. They say the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had indicated that eligible physicians would not be able to get incentives from both the Medicare e-prescribing and Medicare EMR incentive programs simultaneously. Therefore, doctors should choose to take part in only one of these programs, the letter says.

Many doctors who have not yet purchased an e-prescribing or a limited EMR system have decided to forgo the e-prescribing incentives and invest in a comprehensive EMR, the organizations say. But CMS changed its policy at the eleventh hour with the November 2010 publication of its 2011 final fee schedule rule, the letter states. The sudden change doesn’t allow enough time to educate doctors on the need to take part in the 2011 e-prescribing incentive program to avoid penalties in 2012 and 2013.

The major last-minute policy change will compel doctors to spend additional time and money to implement and use e-prescribing software and applications that most will discard when they move to a complete EMR.

The AMA and the organizations strongly oppose basing the 2012 and 2013 e-prescribing penalties on activity that occurs during 2011. At the very least, they say, CMS should extend the reporting period from June 30 to Oct. 31 — an extra four months — to avoid penalties. In addition, the agency should add more exception categories for health professionals, allowing physicians who meet meaningful use criteria in 2011 or 2012 to be exempt from e-prescribing penalties.

The decision to move forward with an EMR can be complicated and costly. Physicians who took the time to make a prudent choice should not be penalized or forced into a wasteful, short-term solution.

Source    :     http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/01/24/edsa0124.htm

January 5, 2011 – Integrated Systems Management Inc announced today that OmniMD™ EHR, Version 11.0 is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as a Complete EHR on January 4, 2011 by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable (eligible provider) certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The 2011/2012 criteria support the Stage 1 meaningful use measures required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

According to Divan Dave, CEO, of OmniMD™ “This certification is another step in our commitment to provide providers with intuitive, easy-to-use, affordable technologies that help them improve patient care, reduce their costs and qualify for government incentives”.

The ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification program tests and certifies that Complete EHRs meet all of the 2011/2012 criteria and EHR Modules meet one or more – but not all – of the criteria approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) for either eligible provider or hospital technology.

“CCHIT is pleased to be testing and certifying products so that companies are now able to offer these products to providers who wish to purchase and implement certified EHR technology and achieve meaningful use in time for the 2011-2012 incentives,” said Karen M. Bell, M.D., M.S.S., Chair, CCHIT.

OmniMD™ EHR, Version 11.0 certification number is CC-1112-484340-1. ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification conferred by CCHIT does not represent an endorsement of the certified EHR technology by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services nor does it guarantee the receipt of incentive payments.

The clinical quality measures to which OmniMD™ has been certified include:

NQF 0421 – Adult Weight Screening & Follow-Up
NQF 0013 – Hypertension: Blood Pressure Measurement
NQF 0028 – Tobacco Use Assessment and Cessation
NQF 0041 – Influenza Immunization
NQF 0024 – Weight Assessment and Counseling
NQF 0038 – Childhood Immunization Status
NQF 0034 – Colorectal Cancer Screening
NQF 0043 – Pneumonia Vaccination Status
NQF 0067 – CAD: Oral Antiplatelet Therapy
NQF 0084 – Heart Failure: Warfarin Therapy

OmniMD™ EHR Version 11.0 is also certified in CCHIT’s separate and independently developed certification program. OmniMD™ Version 11.0 is a pre-market CCHIT Certified® 2011, Ambulatory EHR. Integrated Systems Management Inc. has certified its EHR technology in both programs to provide greater assurance to its customers.

About Integrated Systems Management, Inc

Founded in 2000, OmniMD™ integrated Electronic Health Records and Practice Management (PMS) products and services, offers unparalleled reliability, ease-of-use, efficiency and customizability. OmniMD™ Ambulatory EHR has also earned a designation as a pre-market CCHIT 2011 Certification with the highest 5 Star Usability Rating ensuring OmniMD™ commitment to have a comprehensive, secure, scalable, intuitive and interoperable EHR system. OmniMD™ Ambulatory EHR Version 11.0 is CCHIT 2011 Pre-Market Certified, web-enabled and support devices ranging from Tablet PCs to Smart phones. OmniMD™ offers a comprehensive set of services such as Health Transcriptions, Document Management, Patient Portal, Patient Reminder and Eligibility Verification as part of an integrated solution under one roof helping practices to effectively addressing their financial, administrative, clinical, and regulatory needs. OmniMD™ Ambulatory EHR Version 11.0 is built as a true Software as a Service solution.  It can be deployed as an Enterprise or a Subscription based Service as per the practice requirements.  OmniMD™ is designed to exceed the present and future needs of the healthcare industry. OmniMD™ is robust, scalable, interoperable, secure, intuitive and customizable with rapid deployment model. OmniMD™ EHR has also achieved Surescripts® Gold Solution Provider status, which allows for interoperability with the nation’s community pharmacies – improving the safety, efficiency and quality of the prescribing process. Gold Solution Provider status is granted to vendors whose software products have surpassed Surescripts’ baseline product certification, by demonstrating a higher level of commitment to e-prescribing, enhanced security, excellent customer support and service. OmniMD™ is a division of Integrated Systems Management, Inc. – ISM Inc. – (www.ismnet.com) a leader in Software Development and Information Technology Consulting since 1989.

About CCHIT

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®) is an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with the public mission of accelerating the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology.  The Commission has been certifying electronic health record technology since 2006 and is approved by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB).  More information on CCHIT, CCHIT Certified® products and ONC-ATCB certified electronic health record technology is available at http://cchit.org.

About ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification

The ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification program tests and certifies that EHR technology is capable of meeting the 2011/2012 criteria approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The certifications include Complete EHRs, which meet all of the 2011/2012 criteria for either eligible provider or hospital technology and EHR Modules, which meet one or more – but not all – of the criteria. ONC-ATCB certification aligns with Health Information Technology: Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology published in the Federal Register in July 2010 and strictly adheres to the test procedures published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the time of testing.   ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification conferred by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®) does not represent an endorsement of the certified EHR technology by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services nor does it guarantee the receipt of incentive payments.

“CCHIT®” and “CCHIT Certified®” are registered trademarks of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology.

The letter, sent by the AMA to HHS Secretary Sebelius on Dec. 10, stated that the groups believe the e-Rx penalty policy will hurt efforts to implement widespread health IT adoption among physician practices and cause them to take on needless financial and administrative burdens.

“The last minute decision to require E Prescription in 2011 will force physicians to spend additional financial and administrative resources to purchase e-prescribing software that most of them will end up discarding when they transition to a complete EHR system,” said AMA Board Secretary Steven J. Stack, MD.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) physicians cannot receive incentives from both the Medicare e-prescribing incentive program and the Medicare EHR incentive program simultaneously. However, if physicians choose not to participate in the 2011 e-prescribing program, they will face penalties in 2012 and 2013. Officials said that not aligning these programs will ultimately delay physicians’ efforts to adopt a complete EHR.

“This unreasonable policy leaves many physicians with little choice but to purchase and use a stand-alone e-prescribing program during the initial months of 2011 just to avoid penalties,” said Stack. “HHS must take action now to align the e-prescribing and EHR incentive programs in order to alleviate confusion and reduce financial and administrative burdens on physician practices working to adopt health IT.”

Source    :     http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ama-hhs-medicare-e-rx-penalty-policy-unreasonable

The stimulus legislation, passed in February 2009, was designed to jumpstart the economy.

In presenting the report, Vice President Joe Biden, who was put in charge of seeing that billions of economic stimulus dollars reached its targets, highlighted how the funding is helping drive the use of electronic health records, E Prescription and the use of mobile devices to link remote patients and providers.

For instance, of the $2 billion spending for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, $250 million is funding 15 “Beacon” communities to showcase how health IT in combination with other systems can produce better health outcomes.

“These pilot communities will serve as examples to others in how to use health IT to make marked and sustainable improvements in health care quality, safety and efficiency,” according to the report.

The report cited the Southern Piedmont Community Care Plan in Concord, N.C., which is using its $15.7 million of its Beacon award to increase the number of patients with healthy blood pressure levels and to reduce the number of children with asthma who end up in the emergency room.

The award will pay for electronic health record management and telemedicine equipment as well as development of an indexed image database that will cut down on the number – and costs – of unnecessary X-rays.

Another community cited in the report, the Western New York Clinical Information Exchange, is applying its grant to acquire clinical decision support tools, such as registries, point-of-care alerts and new telemedicine systems to improve the control of blood sugar and other levels of diabetic patients.

Its goal is to reduce avoidable hospital admissions and emergency room visits.

The stimulus will also fund about $18 billion in incentives to encourage healthcare providers to purchase electronic health records systems starting in 2011 through 2015.

Source    :   http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?tid=77&nid=74514

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Chicago, Ill. and the Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), Austin, Texas, were named today by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as the first technology review bodies that have been authorized to test and certify electronic health record (EHR) systems for compliance with the standards and certification criteria that were issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year.

Announcement of these ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCBs) means that EHR vendors can now begin to have their products certified as meeting criteria to support meaningful use, a key step in the national initiative to encourage adoption and effective use of EHRs by America’s health care providers.

“Less than two months following the issuance of final meaningful use rules, we have approved our initial ONC-ATCB certifiers.  EHR vendors can begin immediately to get their products certified.” said David Blumenthal, M.D., national coordinator for Health Information Technology.  This is a crucial step because it ensures that certified EHR products will be available to support the achievement of the required meaningful use objectives, that these products will be aligned with one another on key standards, and that doctors and hospitals can invest with confidence in these certified systems.”

Applications for additional ONC-ATCBs are also under review.

Certification of EHRs is part of a broad initiative undertaken by Congress and President Obama under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.  HITECH created new incentive payment programs to help health providers as they transition from paper-based medical records to EHRs.  Incentive payments totaling as much as $27 billion may be made under the program.  Individual physicians and other eligible professionals can receive up to $44,000 through Medicare and almost $64,000 through Medicaid.  Hospitals can receive millions.

To qualify for the incentive payments, providers must not only adopt, but also demonstrate meaningful use of, certified EHR systems.  The law envisions that defined meaningful use requirements will help ensure that the patient and provider benefits of EHRs are realized.  Initial meaningful use criteria were defined in a final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 28.

In addition to the CMS rule, ONC also issued standards and certification criteria for EHRs on July 28, aimed at ensuring that EHR systems will support the specific tasks required under meaningful use.  Also, through regulations issued on June 24, ONC created a system by which technology review organizations could also qualify as ONC- ATCBs that will certify EHR products as meeting the requirements necessary for meaningful use.

With the initial two ONC-ATCBs now named, EHR vendors can apply to them for certification of their products.  By purchasing certified products, providers will have assurance that the products will support achievement of the meaningful use objectives.

“Multiple steps are underway to carry out the intent of Congress in supporting rapid and effective adoption of EHRs throughout our health care system,” Dr. Blumenthal said.  “The naming of initial ONC-ATCBs is one important step.  Actual certification of multiple vendors’ systems by the ONC-ATCBs is an important next step.  CMS is also working to create an online system for providers to register and attest for the EHR incentive programs. The first incentive payments are targeted to be made in May 2011.  Meanwhile, ONC is also carrying out new programs of technical assistance and training, especially for smaller hospitals and physician practices.”

Dr. Blumenthal said the Health IT initiative “is on an aggressive schedule to meet the urgent targets set by Congress and the President toward realizing the quality and safety improvements that we can achieve through health information technology.”

To learn more about the ONC-ATCBs named today visit www.cchit.org  and www.drummondgroup.com.

For more information about the ONC certification programs visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/certification.

For more information about other HHS Recovery Act Health Information Technology funding and programs, visit http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/index.html#Health.

This news is published on : http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/08/20100830d.html

There has been considerable discussion on the federal stimulus program and the impact it will have in bringing about an improved patient care model through the use of technology. This anticipates care providers having access to electronic health records (EHRs) that can communicate, or “interoperate,” with other health providers and health systems so a complete record of all a patient’s episodes of care, including pharmaceutical records, are available in real-time for physician review. As I explain below, these mechanisms could be used to help monitor and control medical radiation exposure.

This EHR model also anticipates practitioners electronically prescribing medications and having the system advise them of any interactions or allergies to the medications being requested. Such a system could enhance the quality of care, improve outcomes, minimize adverse results, and lower the overall cost of providing healthcare. The model is reminiscent of other industries where the introduction of information technology has had a major positive impact.

To qualify for stimulus funding, healthcare providers need to demonstrate that they actually use the technology in the application of care through a process called “meaningful use,” a guideline published by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. This guideline actually details what type of transactional information must be recorded and used via an EHR product during the care process and at what level of activity (for example, 60% of all prescriptions must be ordered electronically by 2011). The requirements are very rigid and have provoked considerable pushback from the physician community.

Surprisingly, one major component of healthcare, radiology, has been conspicuously omitted from this model. Radiology as a discipline has been at the forefront of IT adoption for more than a decade and the diagnostic equipment used in procedures interoperates extremely well with systems for order management and results reporting.

To demonstrate this in a practical fashion, let’s examine the e-prescribing model with radiation dosage as a substitute for pharmaceuticals. In this example, the EHR system of the radiologist’s practice will have as discrete data elements the levels of exposure and dose a patient has experienced over a period of time. These discrete elements are easily captured in the EHR system, since it is fed electronically from the diagnostic device itself. So the exact dose and duration that the patient received is stored in the permanent record.

This is actually an improvement over the pharmaceutical model, in that typically what is captured is which pharmaceuticals were ordered, not necessarily what was taken by the patient. (How many times has a patient admitted forgetting to take their required mediation or taking it at the wrong time of day)?

If we proceed on the assumption that EHRs are interoperative, then every patient who has a diagnostic exam can have those radiation doses recorded in the radiologists’ EHR system and know that the information is available to other caregivers when needed. So if an ordering physician has an EHR in the office and writes a scrip for a CT, that physician’s EHR system, if performing under the guidelines of interoperability, can query the radiologist’s EHR system and determine, based on the accumulated radiation dose, whether the patient is within acceptable guidelines or whether an alternative approach is warranted. If the ordering physician does not have an EHR and issues a manual scrip to the radiologist, the radiologist with an EHR system would still get an alert that the recommended levels of radiation were questionable and communicate back to the ordering physician for potential alternative approaches. This is just one of several examples that already exist in the radiology IT space.

With the rise of healthcare IT in this country, practical examples and role models are beneficial—and necessary if we are to change the operating culture of physicians. Examples already exist in radiology and should be leveraged whenever possible.

Above article publish on http://www.diagnosticimaging.com/display/article/113619/1542662?verify=0

Payers and health plans have pushed for new incentives for electronic prescription in 2009. For example, in January, Medicare paid doctors a bonus if they exchanged their prescription pads over to e-prescribing. Various private health plans have also offered extra payments along with free equipment.

What the stats say: According to Web sources, the number of physicians prescribing medicines electronically has more than doubled in the past year to about 70,000 (about 12 percent of all office-based doctors). The increase is owing to the incentives introduced at the start of the year. Try not to fall in the 88 percent bracket still holding out in 2010 while throwing out two percent of your Medicare income and possibly other bonuses from private payers.

So have you applied electronic prescription processes? If not you could be missing out on a two percent Medicare bonus. Here’s what you can do to ensure an easy transition.

Before you get going, it is essential that you ask yourself if you want to practice e-prescribing using a stand-alone system or one that is part of an electronic health records (EHR).

Pros and cons:

• Standalone systems are the least expensive and the fastest to implement. But EHRs have additional features that aid in managing a medical practice over the long run.

• Standalones will enable the practice to be up in time for 2010 to optimize the bonus.

• Standalone systems may have the capability to interface with a PM or EHR system.

• The practice can then convert from a standalone system to an integrated system when an EHR is implemented.

But the good news is you do not have to have an EMR (electronic medical record) system to e-prescribe. You can find standalone e-prescription systems such as online options that come much cheaper than a full-blown EMR.

Above article publish on http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2407907

The European Commission investigated the qualitative socio-economic impact of interoperable EHR and e-prescribing systems in 11 practice cases in Europe, the U.S. and Israel to provide insight into factors surrounding successful EHR and e-prescribing deployment. Nine of the cases also underwent a quantitative evaluation of their socio-economic impacts.

“Decisions to invest in EHR and e-prescribing systems should [involve the adoption of] strategies that fit their local or regional setting and be designed to succeed by meeting clearly identified, measurable needs,” concluded the Commission.

The socio-economic gain to society from interoperable EHR and e-prescribing systems eventually exceed the costs, according to the commision. While it found that a typical development can reach an annual socio-economic return (SER) of up to 400 percent, it can take at least four–and up to nine–years before initiatives produce their first positive annual SER.

According to the European Commission, it can take an average of nine years to realize a cumulative net benefit.  “Plans to invest in EHRs and e-prescribing systems should have a clear focus on achieving changes at the right time,” the commission reported. Longer time scales are generally associated with a lower risk of failure, according to the report.

In the study, the average distribution of costs were allocated from citizens (2 percent), providers (11 percent), health provider organizations (80 percent) and third parties (7 percent). The average distribution of benefits were dispursed between citizens (17 percent), providers (17 percent), health provider organizations (61 percent) and third parties (5 percent).

“From a systematic perspective, no single or small group of benefits comprise a sufficient reason for investment in EHR and e-prescribing systems,” the report found.

The total value of invested financial and non-financial resources at the evaluated sites was extremely wide with 42 percent of these expenditures on information and communication technologies.

According to the organization, an opportunity exists for all EHR and e-prescribing systems to facilitate a productive dialogue between users and information and communication technology experts before spending large sums of money on actual solutions. “Continouous engagement with healthcare professionals from the outset is essential and time-consuming, but must not be avoided,” stated the report. “If it is, it has bigger costs downstream.”

Another potential opportunity is to use interoperability as a prime driver of benefits. “Without the meaningful hearing and exchange of information, the gains would be marginal and not justify the cost of investments,” said the report.

Above article publish on http://www.healthimaging.com/index.php?option=com_articles&view=article&id=20149:study-implementing-ehr-e-prescribing-is-challenging-but-beneficial-over-time

The new Medicare Part B fee schedule for 2010 is encouraging doctors to adopt EHRs by, for the first time, allowing practices to use real clinical data from EHRs and e-prescribing systems to report quality measures for the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and e-prescribing incentive programs. The change, according to CMS, is “to promote adoption and use of electronic health records and to provide both eligible professionals and CMS with experience on EHR-based reporting,” Government Health IT reports.

Whether the incentive payments are large enough to spur many practices to switch to EHRs ahead of the 2011 debut of the federal stimulus program is uncertain, however. PQRI participants can earn 2 percent on top of their total Medicare Part B fees for reporting quality data in 2010, and another 2 percent for writing electronic prescriptions. The e-prescribing bonus drops to 1 percent in 2011 and penalties for not e-prescribing begin in 2012. CMS is trying to simplify reporting of e-prescribing by requiring a single code to be eligible for the bonus next year.

To learn more about the PQRI and e-prescribing aspects of the 2010 fee schedule:

Above article published on http://www.fierceemr.com/story/cms-allow-ehr-reporting-pqri-e-prescribing-bonuses-2010/2009-11-05

Key changes to physician quality reporting and e-prescribing incentives are being proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

The proposed changes add reporting measures and a way for reporting by group practice rather than individual physician, as well as provisions for EHR-based reporting. For e-prescribing, CMS aims to simplify the reporting measures.

The Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), first implemented in 2007, is a voluntary program that provides incentives for reporting data on certain quality measures for services provided under Medicare Part B.

For calendar year 2010, participants may earn an incentive payment of 2 percent of the estimated total allowed charges for Medicare Part B covered professional services provided during the reporting period.

CMS is offering additional reporting options and reporting periods. Some options require data on quality measures to be submitted by Dec. 31, 2010.

However, participants who submit data through registries will not be required to submit data on quality measures until 2011.

Key changes in the MPFS final rule with comment period for calendar year 2010 will:

• Add 30 individual PQRI measures and six measures groups on which individual eligible professionals may report.
• Implement provisions of the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) that will enable group practices to qualify for a 2010 PQRI incentive payment based on a determination at the group practice level, rather than at the individual practitioner level.
• Add a reporting mechanism to promote the adoption and use of EHRs and provide both eligible professionals and CMS with experience on EHR-based quality reporting. Under the rule, CMS will begin accepting data from qualified EHR products on 10 individual PQRI measures. In 2010, CMS will, for the first time, allow physicians to count their submission of EHR-based measures toward their eligibility for a PQRI incentive payment. Specifically, the final rule provides that physicians who satisfactorily report data on at least three of the 10 EHR-based individual PQRI measures are eligible for an incentive payment. In previous years, EHR-based measure submission has been on a voluntary or “pilot” basis and has not counted toward an EP’s eligibility for an incentive payment.

The new rule adds a six-month reporting period, which begins July 1, 2010, for claims-based reporting of individual measures. In prior years, the six-month reporting period was available only for measures group reporting or for registry-based reporting.

Following distribution of 2010 incentive payments, CMS will post on its Web site the names of eligible professionals and group practices that satisfactorily report quality measures.

E-prescribing incentive program

Beginning in 2012, CMS will impose penalties on physicians who aren’t prescribing electronically. The reporting period for the e-prescribing incentive program for 2010 will be the entire calendar year, and incentives will be paid based on the covered professional services furnished by an eligible professional during the reporting year.

Key changes for the calendar year 2010 under the final rule will simplify the reporting requirements for the electronic prescribing measure by:

• Streamlining in what manner and how often a physician must report e-prescribing information to CMS. For 2010, the rule requires them to report an e-prescribing code only when a patient visit results in an electronic prescription being placed. The final rule also provides that a physician will need to report this code at least 25 times during the reporting period to be considered a successful electronic prescriber. In 2009, CMS required physicians to report one of several e-prescribing codes, based on different scenarios that characterize the presence or absence of an electronic prescription during a patient visit, and to report these codes at least 50 percent of the time.
• Providing more choices for reporting electronic prescribing measures. For 2010, in addition to the current claims-based reporting mechanism, physicians will be allowed to report the e-prescribing measure through qualified registries or through a qualified EHR product. Only registries and EHR products that qualify for the 2010 PQRI and have the capability to report the e-prescribing measure will be qualified for submitting data on the e-prescribing measure for 2010.
• Broaden eligibility for the e-prescribing incentive by including professional services furnished in skilled nursing facilities, domiciliary care or the home-care setting as part of the list of services for which the electronic prescribing measure is reportable.
• Implement a MIPPA provision that enables group practices to qualify for a 2010 e-prescribing incentive payment based on a determination at the group practice level, rather than at the individual eligible professional level, that the group practice is a successful electronic prescriber.

Following distribution of 2010 incentive payments, CMS will post on its Web site the names of individual physicians and group practices that are successful e-prescribers for the 2010 program.

Above article published on http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/changes-ahead-quality-reporting-e-prescribing-programs