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What You Need to Know About the Certified EHR Incentives

Posted on 18. Jan, 2012 by Brad Rourke.

Learn about the beginning of the incentive program, i.e. – the Recovery Act, and discover details about qualification requirements, how incentive payments are calculated, and the timing for these payments. We discuss 15 core requirements and 5 menu items you must fulfill in order to qualify. During this informative webinar, we will toggle from these abstract requirements to providing a visual of a few of the requirements with Practice Director. In addition, you will learn what you need to file to receive your incentive payments and hear about some things you should consider doing to prepare.

Click the link below to view the recording of the January 18, 2012 webinar:
“What you need to Know about the Certified EHR Incentives”
Additional Resources

Here are also a number of links to sources of information that I discussed in the webinar:

1. CMS Official web site for the incentive program: http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/

2. HIT Policy Meeting Schedule: http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1269&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=5&mode=2

3. Registration information for the program along with PECOS and NPPES information: http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/50_Registration.asp#TopOfPage

If you have any questions, contact us.

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Practice Director set to Release first update to Certified Version 4.0 & Utilizing Amazon Web Services

Posted on 07. Dec, 2011 by Brad Rourke.

December 7, 2011, Lincoln, NE – Practice Director Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams Group, announced that they will be releasing enhancements to their ONC-ATCB certified EHR software. In addition to numerous clinical data efficiency enhancements, the EHR and Practice Management software vendor will now be utilizing Amazon Web Services.

When releasing Version 4.0, Practice Director’s ONC-ATCB complete certified health record, the Company had incorporated Google Health to provide patients with timely access to their eye care health information. Shortly thereafter, in June of 2011 Google quietly announced they would be discontinuing Google Health Services. Practice Director has moved their service of providing timely access to patient eye care health information to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, more popularly known as Amazon EC2. Practice Director will provide a patient portal through Amazon Web Services, which will allow patients to securely access their eye health information on demand. Optometric Physicians will now have the capability to provide their patients with secure electronic access on demand to their eye health information. The Practice Director portal through Amazon EC2 increases the control the software vendor has over providing this service and improves the efficiency and accessibility patients have to their eye health information.

Practice Director is also utilizing Amazon Simple Storage Service, more popularly known as Amazon S3, for its software updates. Amazon S3 is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers, the service aims to maximize benefits of scale, which will allow Practice Director to pass these benefits on to its clients. Practice Director is now utilizing Amazon S3 to deploy software updates to clients by allowing Practice Director users to pull software updates down over the web at their convenience versus scheduling and pushing software updates to clients.

“The addition of Amazon Web Services technology provides scalable efficiencies that will be passed on to our valued optometric physician client base, their staff and their patients” said Brad Rourke, CPA & Vice President of Practice Director. “In utilizing Amazon Web Services we are leveraging state of the art technologies for the benefit of our clients”

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Visit us at 2011 Wisconsin Optometric Association Convention & Annual Meeting

Posted on 21. Sep, 2011 by Brad Rourke.

Wisconsin Optometric Association Convention & Annual Meeting is being held at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton, Wisconsin on September 22nd through the 25th, 2011. Be sure to visit with a representative from Practice Director Software. For more information about the Wisconsin Optometric Association Convention & Annual Meeting, visit their website.

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What You Need to Know About the Certified EHR Incentives – September 20, 2011 Webinar

Posted on 29. Jul, 2011 by Brad Rourke.

Learn about the beginning of the incentive program, i.e. – the Recovery Act, and discover details about qualification requirements, how incentive payments are calculated, and the timing for these payments. We discuss 15 core requirements and 5 menu items you must fulfill in order to qualify. During this informative webinar, we will toggle from these abstract requirements to providing a visual of a few of the requirements with Practice Director. In addition, you will learn what you need to file to receive your incentive payments and hear about some things you should consider doing to prepare.

Click the link below to view the recording of the September 20, 2011 webinar:
“What you need to Know about the Certified EHR Incentives”
Additional Resources

Here are also a number of links to sources of information that I discussed in the webinar:

1. CMS Official web site for the incentive program: http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/

2. HIT Policy Meeting Schedule: http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1269&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=5&mode=2

3. Registration information for the program along with PECOS and NPPES information: http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/50_Registration.asp#TopOfPage

If you have any questions, contact us.

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Practice Director Receives ONC-ATCB Certification by Drummond Group

Posted on 14. Jul, 2011 by Brad Rourke.

7/14/2011—Lincoln, NE – Practice Director has received the federal government’s “meaningful use” stamp of approval by earning Complete EHR Ambulatory. The designation officially deems the electronic health record (EHR) software capable of enabling providers to qualify for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Tested and certified under the Drummond Group’s Electronic Health Records Office of the National Coordinator Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB) program, the EHR software is 2011/2012 compliant in accordance with the criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“The certification validates that our software can help providers take part in the electronic revolution that is reverberating across the healthcare industry. Healthcare providers can now leverage our software to not only make significant care improvements but to also achieve meaningful use and qualify for incentive funds under ARRA. We are proud to offer providers the opportunity to truly improve care in their communities,” says Brad Rourke, Vice President.

Drummond Group’s ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification program tests and certifies that EHRs meet the meaningful use criteria for either eligible provider or hospital technology. In turn, healthcare providers using the EHR systems of certified vendors are qualified to receive federal stimulus monies upon demonstrating meaningful use of the technology — a key component of the federal government’s push to improve clinical care delivery through the adoption and effective use of EHRs by U.S. healthcare providers.

Practice Director, which met the requirements for Complete EHR Ambulatory, is certified to meet all the mandatory certification criteria for that type of EHR testing as identified in the Standards and Certification Criteria Final Rule (45 CFR Part 170 Part III).

“The need to leverage information technology in the healthcare industry is huge – as the quality of care and efficiency benefits that come with computerization can really make a difference in the overall patient experience. We’re ready to help transform the industry by providing the sophisticated software testing services that ensure that vendors and hospitals are offering systems that are capable of meeting the meaningful use standards required to obtain incentive funds as well as the rich functionality required to move the clinical care needle forward,” says Rik Drummond, CEO of the Drummond Group. “We have been testing software for more than a decade and are ready to leverage our extensive experience handling sophisticated systems in complex industries as well as dealing with complicated technical issues such as interoperability and security.”

This Complete EHR is 2011/2012 compliant and has been certified by Drummond Group, an ONC-ATCB approved to certify any complete or modular EHR both ambulatory and inpatient, in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This certification does not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or guarantee the receipt of incentive payments. Drummond Group, July 14, 2011, Practice Director Version 4.0, 07142011-1057-1, NQF0013, NQF0024, NQF0027, NQF0028, NQF0038, NQF0041, NQF0043, NQF0086, NQF0421, DrFirst Rcopia, Email, Google Health.

About Practice Director

Practice Director has modeled its relationship-based support after its parent company, Williams Group, a leader in eye care practice management consulting for over 25 years. No other optometric software company has the ability to leverage the vast experience and insights attained from helping hundreds of optometrists from all over the world improve their practice efficiency, profitability, and enjoyment of practice ownership.

About Drummond Group

Drummond Group Inc., the trusted software test lab, provides effective and efficient electronic health record (EHR) testing to healthcare information technology vendors and hospitals. As an Office of the National Coordinator Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB), Drummond Group works closely with healthcare software vendors and hospitals to certify EHRs that are looking to qualify for incentive funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Drummond Group is approved to certify both complete and modular EHR for both ambulatory and inpatient. Leveraging more than a decade’s worth of interoperability, conformance testing and certification experience in multiple industries, Drummond Group delivers what’s needed in healthcare: highly reliable and readily affordable software testing services. For more information, go to www.drummondgroup.com.

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Practice Director Successfully Completes Certification Testing

Posted on 24. Jun, 2011 by Brad Rourke.

Practice Director has completed and passed Certification testing. The Drummond Group proctor, an ONC – Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB), passed Practice Director on all tests for Complete Certification.

We expect it will be approximately two weeks before the administration details are complete and we are listed among the Certified Health IT Product Vendors.

For more information please: contact us.

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e-Prescribing: Ten Required by June 30th

Posted on 14. Apr, 2011 by Brad Rourke.

If you have not begun electronic prescribing, you should do so now. Why? On November 19, 2010, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that if you do not electronically submit at least ten medical prescriptions from January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011, you will be subject to a 1% adjustment penalty to your 2012 Medicare reimbursements.

The Penalty

The 2012 and 2013 penalties, also known as Medicare payment adjustments, are a function of meeting e-prescribing thresholds in 2011. Providers need to be thinking about actively using e-prescribing now to avoid 2012 and 2013 reimbursement adjustments.

In addition to electronically submitting a minimum of ten prescriptions, you must submit an additional fifteen medical prescriptions electronically between July 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011 to avoid a 1% reduction in 2012. Also if you do not electronically prescribe a minimum of twenty-five medical prescriptions in 2011, you will be subject to a 1.5% Medicare adjustment penalty levied against your 2013 Medicare reimbursements. Your 2012 and 2013 Medicare reimbursements are affected by how you use e-prescribing in 2011.

Can You Avoid The Penalty?

You can avoid the penalty if you are not a physician or you do not have prescribing privileges. You can also avoid the penalty if you do not have at least 100 Medicare patients or 10% of Medicare patient visits during 2011. Finally, you can avoid payment adjustment penalties if you report a significant hardship exemption.

E-Prescribing Incentive Program

If you do e-prescribe and avoid the penalties, in 2011 CMS will pay you a 1% bonus of your total Medicare Part B reimbursements. The incentive is not limited to 1% of only those encounters where a medication has been submitted electronically but to all 2011 Medicare encounters regardless of whether or not a medication has been prescribed electronically. In 2012 and 2013, there will be a 1% and 0.5% e-prescribing bonus.

For specifics of the bonuses, you should read “How to Get Started” in the e-Prescribing section on CMS’s website found here: http://www.cms.gov/ERxIncentive/

E-Prescribing Requirements

E-Prescribing does not require certification like the Electronic Health Record systems. CMS does outline the following capabilities that software must have in order for the e-prescribing system to be useable:

• Ability to generate a complete active medication list incorporating electronic data received from applicable pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers if available.
• Ability to select medications, print prescriptions, electronically transmits prescriptions and conduct alerts.
• Ability to provide information related to lower costs and therapeutically appropriate alternatives, if any.

E-Prescribing and EHR Certification

You cannot obtain both the e-prescribing incentive and the EHR Certification incentive at the same time. Therefore to maximize your incentive bonuses, you could obtain the e-prescribing bonus in 2011 and file for the EHR incentive beginning in 2012.

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