Health Information Technology (HIT)

The Montana Primary Care Association has entered into a valuable partnership with Health Technology Services to assist the community health centers in implementing, upgrading and utilizing electronic health records (EHR) to reach Meaningful Use.

Why HIT?
Health information technology (Health IT) allows comprehensive management of medical information and its secure exchange among health care consumers, providers, health plans and others. The goals for implementing HIT and EHR systems are directly linked to:

• Improve health care quality
• Prevent medical errors
• Reduce health care costs
• Increase administrative efficiencies
• Decrease paperwork
• Expand access to affordable care
• Engage individuals in their health maintenance and wellness efforts
• Integrated orders and e-prescribing, full electronic charting, and remote access to improve communications with providers

Meaningful Use

To qualify for incentive payments, meaningful use requirements must be met in the following ways:

Medicare EHR incentive program –
Eligible professionals must successfully demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology every year they participate in the program.

Medicaid EHR incentive program –
Eligible professionals may qualify for incentive payments for the adoption, implementation, upgrade or the demonstration of meaningful use in their first year of participation. They must successfully demonstrate meaningful use for the remaining years they participate in the program.

The Definition of Meaningful Use Requirements
The Recovery Act specifies three main components of Meaningful Use:

• The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner (e.g.: e-Prescribing);
• The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care; and
• The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.

The requirements of meaningful use to qualify for incentive payments were released on July 13, 2010. The final rule definitively outlines all the specifics of Stage 1 Meaningful Use and Clinical Quality Measure reporting to receive the incentive payments in 2011 and 2012.

Eligibility
For complete eligibility rules contact HTS REC. See more eligibility information from the CMS website.

Eligible Providers
Must meet 15 core requirements + 5 menu requirements (see listing of core & menu items for EPs)
Quality measures required for reporting for EPs – 3 core + 3 menu
If EP unable to report on normal core measures, three (3) alternative core measures are specified as well as a process for determining reporting requirements for the EP.

Reporting Requirements
Reporting Period –for any consecutive 90 days for first year; one year subsequently
For 2011 –Providers required to submit summary quality measure data to CMS or States by attestation
For 2012 –Providers required electronically submit quality measure data to CMS or States

Documents

• Stage 1 Meaningful Use Core & Menu listing for Providers
• CMS Acronym Listing
• Medicare Eligible Professional Tip Sheet (CMS)
• Medicaid Eligible Professional Tip Sheet (CMS)
• Eligibility Flow Chart (CMS)

Path to Payment
Use the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs Checklists to show you the steps to take to receive your incentive payments.

HIT Toolkit for Community Health Centers:
Coming Soon!

The HIT Toolkit for community health centers can be used for implementing or enhancing a comprehensive EHR. The HIT Toolkit will provide resources during the seven stages to Meaningful Use:

HIT Resources