Unfortunately, the notion of being fashionably late does not apply to EHR incentive programs. It pays to be on time for this party.  If you haven’t yet attested for the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs, you’ve still got some time.  Eligible professionals must begin their consecutive 90-day reporting period by October 3rd in order to attest to meeting meaningful use and be qualified to receive an incentive payment for 2012. Nuesoft has prepared a video guide to help walk you through some of the program’s more complex meaningful use requirements.  Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. Follow our guide and prepare your practice to receive the maximum incentive payments available. Full Video: Want more? Click here to download [cont...]

Let’s face it — we’re all a little bit afraid of change and uncertainty. With a number of new regulations in the pipeline that will impact medical practices, many physicians are uneasy, perhaps rightly so. The most recent ruling establishes October 2014 as the deadline for ICD-10 compliance. The ICD-10 diagnosis code set will replace ICD-9, and expand the number of codes from 17,000 to approximately 141,000. With this announcement, many physicians and medical personnel are bracing themselves for what they fear is a complex labyrinth of documentation. Please take a look at our short animated video, “Big Challenges for Medical Practices” and review the findings from our national survey, “Attitudes Toward the Transition to ICD-10 and ANSI-5010.” We’d like [cont...]

Meaningful use incentive checks are beginning to make their way to physicians who have met the specified criteria. Check out these numbers regarding EHRs and certification. Currently, there are 6 operational ONC-ATCBs. There are more than 393 Certified HIT List Product (CHPL) vendors. 18,000 providers have registered for the Medicare and Medicaid “meaningful use” incentive programs as of February 8, 2011. 37 percent of physicians keep records entirely in electronic format. 69 percent of patients want their doctor to use an EHR.

Start collecting your incentive checks using Nuesoft’s newly ONC-ATCB certified EHR. Nuesoft received certification from the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®) for NueMD® EHR Version 11.1 on Feb. 11, signifying that it meets the Stage 1 meaningful use requirements that qualify eligible providers (EPs) for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).     “We believe that this certification validates the NueMD product as being top of its class, and are pleased that it will entitle our users to the ARRA incentives,” said CEO Massoud Alibakhsh.   The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) opened its meaningful use attestation program on April 18, marking an important milestone in the payment process. Eligible providers (EPs) who are [cont...]

Most providers are familiar with the billions of dollars that were set aside as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act to facilitate the broader implementation of electronic health records (EHRs). What they may not be aware of is the $677 million that was designated for a national network of regional extension centers (RECs) to help physicians achieve meaningful use of their EHR systems. The long term viability of the RECs, and the extent to which they will effectively deliver on their primary goal of helping to facilitate more extensive use of health information technology remains to be seen.   The REC system was developed to ease the challenging task for providers to convert [cont...]

As the first meaningful use checks went out last month, many were still wondering if this “EHR thing” would catch on. The CDC’s annual National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey shows that it very well may be. Is your practice on the EHR train yet?   After years of insignificant adoption rates for electronic health records, the trend may be shifting. The CDC data indicates that between 2009 and 2010 the percentage of physicians with systems that met the criteria of a basic or a fully functional system increased by 14.2 percent and 46.4 percent, respectively.   “In 2009, Congress and the President authorized major new federal support for EHR adoption and use,” said David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health Information [cont...]

It’s been nearly two years since the HITECH Act was passed. Since then, the healthcare industry has been abuzz with talk about the need for broader adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), but has all the recent hype really caused more adoption of EHRs in doctors’ practices? Many factors have been blamed for physicians not adopting EHRs—cost, time/effort to install and train, and even stubbornness to change. Even though HITECH has built in incentive payments through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for adopting (and penalties starting in 2014), many doctors in small practices have expressed that they just don’t think it’s worth the hassle, as these smaller practices face the most challenges when adopting. While it is tricky [cont...]

If you ever doubted that IT professionals are hip,  watch  Nuesoft’s new music video, “Interface,” a parody of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface.”  Nuesoft has more than 30 interfaces with EHR systems, lab systems and document systems using standard Health Level 7 (HL7) protocols.  For more information visit www.nuesoft.com/interface. Lyrics to “Interface”: You want your EHR to talk to NueMD? No problem! – we’ll connect ‘em, Data flows so easily. Appointments and encounters are an easy place to start. And after we’ve been hooked up You’ll have data in your charts. Oh o-oh oh oh, o-o-o-o-o-oh We’ll hook ‘em up, show you what we’ve got (2x) If  you need a, you need an interface We know the HL-7 (2x) Int-int-int-interface, your interface [cont...]

Electronic health records (EHRs) are here to stay. The industry has come to accept this and more smaller and medium-sized medical practices have recently begun to implement an EHR. Those who have held off are wondering about whether such a substantial investment will pay off — both in terms of dollars and patient care. Money in the Bank Unless you’ve been on another planet for the past year, you are likely aware that the government is going to pay up to $44,000 over five years per eligible provider for “meaningful use of certified EHR technology.” The incentive plan was introduced as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, included in the massive stimulus bill [cont...]

The announcement earlier this month by the Office of the National Coordinator for Healthcare IT (ONC) about its notice of proposed rulemaking for EHR certification may have overshadowed some other significant news recently coming from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). With the anticipated increase of electronic health record adoption over the next few years, it appears that in addition to rolling out a new voluntary EHR certification program, HHS – via its daughter agency FDA – is considering regulation of health information technology systems. Dr. Jeffery Shuren, director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), gave testimony for a hearing late last month of the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee, Adoption/Certification Workgroup. The [cont...]