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E-Prescribing Functionality

Posted on 12. Nov, 2010 by Brad Rourke.

Practice Director is currently being certified to submit electronic medication orders through the Surescripts network of pharmacies.  In addition to providing the ability to submit e-prescriptions, clients will have the ability to easily generate renewals, be alerted to drug-allergy and drug-drug conflicts as well as check formularies.

The American Medical Association discusses four key benefits of e-Prescribing to your Practice:

1. Efficient access to your patient’s medication history information.
2. Time savings and more productive use of your staff.
3. Alerts and reminders that help you make better clinical decisions.
4. Greater convenience for your patients.

In addition to practice benefits there are financial incentive benefits to electronically submitting medications.  Including the Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program http://www.cms.gov/ERxIncentive/ and the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/.

For more information about Practice Director’s e-Prescribing functionality, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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iPad & Practice Director

Posted on 18. May, 2010 by Brad Rourke.

Practice Director Software for Windows & Mac OS X is functional with Apple’s iPad.  Once familiar with the iPad’s touch screen and on-screen key board, the ease-of-use is impressive.

For those wanting to enjoy the benefits of utilizing Practice Director through a convenient,  light weight, portable device  in the office, at home or from wherever you have internet access, the iPad is a solid option.

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Practice Director adds Unlimited CL Trials to EHR

Posted on 15. Apr, 2010 by Brad Rourke.

Practice Director Software for Windows & Mac OS X has added the ability for doctors to document an unlimited number of trial contacts lens (CL) fittings within the original electronic record. The objective of contact lens management is to find the best lens for the patient’s vision and comfort; therefore the ability to add unlimited CL trials with the final prescription being integrated with dispensary and billing is necessary for complete CL management and care.

Click Image for Full Size Screenshot

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Practice Director to Exhibit at the Kansas Optometric Association

Posted on 13. Apr, 2010 by Brad Rourke.

Please visit us at booth #10 and you’ll receive a $1,000 rebate certificate for the purchase of Practice Director Optometry & EHR Software for Windows & Mac OS X.

Practice Director is pleased with the opportunity to exhibit at the Kansas Optometric Association. The Kansas Optometric Association Annual Convention and Seminar will be held April 29 – May 1, 2010 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka.

In addition to an excellent education program, the convention will include a golf tournament, opportunities for you to visit with vendors in the exhibit hall, the annual banquet, and socializing with other professionals about the latest issues affecting the profession. For additional information go to: http://www.kansasoptometric.org/public_koaconvention.shtml

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AOA EHR Educational Program

Posted on 13. Apr, 2010 by Brad Rourke.

Practice Director Optometry/Optical & EHR Software for Windows & Mac OS X has sponsored the 2010 – 2011 AOA EHR Affiliate Education program.

The American Optometric Association (AOA) has developed an Electronic Health Records (EHR) Preparedness Program to ensure optometry firmly maintains its position as America’s primary eye care profession in a new world of health information technology. As part of the AOA EHR Preparedness Program, the AOA is hosting the EHR Affiliate Education Program, a series of seminars at state association meetings to address the need of optometrists for the selection and implementation of EHR and e-prescribing. With deadlines fast approaching, optometrists have never had more reason – or a better opportunity – to implement EHR systems in their practices.

For more information on the program please go to: http://www.aoa.org/x14207.xml

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Optometry Software for Mac OS X

Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by Brad Rourke.

More optometrists and retail optical stores are switching to Practice Director because Practice Director is fully Mac compatible. Mac compatibility isn’t the only reason they are switching to Practice Director, but it is one of many.

We recently deployed Practice Director on another all Mac multi-location optometry office. The server-side software of Practice Director was installed on a Mac Pro with 16GB RAM that supports connections from offices with approximately 10 users at each location. Users at each location are using a combination of MacBooks, iMac’s and MacBook Pro’s for their work stations. This professional office chose Practice Director because of its simple to use and integrated Electronic Health Record (EHR) and its ability to run in Mac OS X environments.

Another of our customers said the following about their experience with Practice Director migrating from PC/Windows to Mac OS X.

“What is really appealing about Practice Director is that most of us have had experience with a PC crashing and entertain switching to Mac. The main problem with switching is the expense of switching all computers at once. With Practice Director, you can switch one at a time, like we are doing, and the program works with all.” Drs Kevin & Joy Kissel O.D.; kissel@fastem.com

I’d love to hear your comments and if you’ve entertained the idea of switching from PC/Windows to Mac OS X, and why or why not?

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What’s the Probability You Will Receive EHR Stimulus Payments?

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by Brad Rourke.

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary Health and Human Services (HHS), was required to issue initial guidance on ‘Certification’ and ‘Meaningful Use’ of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by December 31, 2009. This requirement is pursuant to the 787 billion dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also referred to as the stimulus plan.

Per the HHS website, on December 30, 2009, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) that specifies the Secretary’s adoption of an initial set of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for health record technology.

In short, although there is still much work to be done in 2010, the HHS stimulus program is on track, and therefore the probability is increasing that EHR technology adoption stimulus funds will be available to you in 2011.

What Stimulus Funds are available for Optometrists?

A component of the February 2009 Stimulus Plan was enacted to improve health of all Americans as well as improve the efficiency of health care delivery. To this end, qualifying providers (e.g. Optometric Doctors), who demonstrate ‘Meaningful Use’ of a ‘Certified EHR’, are eligible under the Medicare program for up to $44,000 in incentive payments. The incentive payments are meant to offset the cost of acquiring, deploying, training and using EHR technology.

Beginning in 2011, incentive payments will be made to Providers through Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided adoption and Meaningful Use of Certified EHR technology is demonstrated. The fundamental terms of payment are as follows:

• Up to $18,000, $12,000, $8,000, $4,000, $2,000 for years 1 through 5, respectively, beginning in 2011 paid out via bonus payments of 75% of your Medicare reimbursements.
• Adoption and demonstration of meaningful use of Certified EHR technology is required by 2012 in order to be eligible for the full $44,000 incentive.
• A penalty of 1% per year of your Medicare reimbursements will go into effect if you have not demonstrated meaningful use of Certified EHR technology by 2015; the penalty is restricted to a maximum of 5 years.
• There are no stated restrictions on the use of incentive payments received.

What is Meaningful Use of a Certified EHR Technology?

The Interim Final Rule (IFR) regulation filings of December 30, 2009 bring us much closer to definitively answering this question.

The two IFR regulation documents that were filed with the Office of the Federal Register by HHS are:

1. Medicaid & Medicare Programs; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program; 556 pages in .pdf format.
2. Health Information Technology: Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology; 136 pages in .pdf format.

They are available at: http://www.federalregister.gov/inspection.aspx#special

Much of the content is based on the work done by the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee. The HIT Policy Committee was created by Stimulus Plan legislation and is charged with recommending definitions of Certified EHR Technology and Meaningful Use.

The first document sets out what will be required to demonstrate Meaningful Use. HHS has deemed it appropriate to define the requirements for Meaningful Use in three stages:

Stage-1 defines what Meaningful Use of Certified EHR technology is for purposes of 2011, or year 1, incentive payments. There are 25 Stage-1 one criteria for Providers, a reliable summary of the 25 criteria along with measures can be viewed at:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/eligible-provider-Meaningful Use-criteria

Stage-1 Criteria Examples include:

• 80% of orders must be computer physician order entry (CPOE).
• 80% of all patients must have at least one ‘electronic documentation’ of allergy and medication or an indication of ‘none’.
• 75% of prescriptions written must be transmitted electronically.
• 80% of patients who request a copy of their health record electronically must receive it with in 48 hours.

Stages 2 and 3, which are not fully defined, will focus on the exchange of clinical data and decision support tools respectively. Stage-2 definitions are expected by the end of 2011 and Stage-3, by the end of 2013.

Are Certified EHRs available now?

As of January 2010 there are no HHS certified EHRs available for purposes of the stimulus plan incentive payments. It is quite likely there may not be HHS Certified EHRs available until very late in 2010 or perhaps early 2011.

The second document filed with the Federal Registrar, mentioned above, which covers the Interim Final Rule of certification criteria for EHR technology must be finalized before you will see HHS certified EHRs.

The IFR document makes an important distinction of ‘certified EHR technology’ as opposed to ‘certified EHRs’. The distinction is important because providers can use multiple vendors of EHR technology to satisfy the 25 stage-1 criteria rather than adopting one certified EHR that satisfies all 25.

What should ODs be doing?

Before CMS will cut you a check, you’ll need to demonstrate you are using certified EHR technology in a “meaningful way”.

First, I recommend you become familiar with the 25-Stage 1 Meaningful Use criteria. To do this you can read the Health Care IT news above or other similar summary sources. As an alternative, you can work your way through the Interim Final Rule. The latter is a daunting task, but it is certainly more reliable to obtain the information from the original source versus reviewing another’s summary.

Secondly, although there are no HHS certified EHR technologies available now, I still recommend, if you haven’t done so already, that you adopt a Practice Management system with an embedded EHR. The EHR should be from a reputable vendor who is moving toward certification, and it’s critically important that you have an indefinite contractual right to access patient data with the EHR software. The benefits and advantages of using electronic health records over paper records are well documented.

As a final point on this subject, using Certified EHR Technology is not a legislated requirement that requires your compliance. The stimulus plan legislation explicitly sets out that adoption is voluntary (Section 3006, Title VIII), but as mentioned above, providers that do not adopt will be charged a 1% penalty of Medicare reimbursements.

What is the Williams Group / Practice Director doing to help you?

I’d like to assure you we will follow Meaningful Use and Certification developments closely. We will do our best to help our clients and interested parties understand what is involved and what must be done to satisfy EHR certified technology requirements. The integrated EHR that is embedded into Practice Director’s practice management software system is developed to help you with this endeavor.

For more information, contact us.

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