by CCHIT Staff
HHS has earmarked $150 million in funding for its new “National EHR Demonstration” project, to help physicians underwrite the costs of investing in EHR. Eligible physician practices will be willing to:
- Invest in and use an EHR system certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology
- Gather and report quality data to CMS
- Deliver high-quality health care to patients based on national standards
HHS Secretary Leavitt is anxious to add additional practices to the program:
“I have 12 flags I’m going to plant someplace in America, and with those flags come 100 smaller flags,” said Leavitt, referring to the 100 small- and medium-size physician practices he wants each of the communities designated as Chartered Value Exchanges to recruit to the EHR demonstration project.
Ultimately, up to 1,200 physician practices from various regions of the country — all affiliated with Chartered Value Exchange communities — will be chosen to participate in the pilot.
For more information on the program, see the AAFP’s coverage of the project.
by CCHIT Staff
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) is seeking a budget increase. And part of that budget includes incentives for physicians who adopt EHR:
[T]he budget proposes $3.8 million for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to fund the second year of a demonstration project to offer financial incentives for as many as 1,200 physician practices to adopt certified electronic health records systems.
by CCHIT Staff
Medical Associates of Erie (MAE) has announced that they have selected MedAppz iSuite 3.5 CCHIT Certified Ambulatory EHR software to provide community-based electronic health records throughout Erie County, Pennsylvania.
“Mid-sized communities need to have access to the same level of healthcare technology that larger cities and regional hospitals enjoy,” said Dennis M. Styn, President of MAE. “And for us, choosing MedAppz iSuite 3.5 to connect the Erie practices was a no-brainer: MedAppz provides us with an integrated Web-based system that automates all our current processes, doesn’t require a huge technology investment, and is simple to learn and use.”
For more information on iSuite 3.5, see MedAppz.
by CCHIT Staff
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt has published an appeal to the healthcare providers in the United States, urging them to adopt electronic health records.
This seemed more than appropriate for our first post.
In his appeal, Leavitt encourages physicians to bring their tools inline with their medical expertise:
Our medical professionals are practicing 21st-century medicine with 19th-century tools. They’re using paper charts that aren’t always where they need to be, with handwritten notes that read like a cipher. They can’t easily compare notes from clinical practice to see what works. As a result, Americans can’t tell how good their care is or how much it costs. They also suffer needlessly from medical errors that could be avoided.
Part of the effort to improve, he maintains, is adopting Electronic Health Records (EHR):
Physicians also benefit from the use of electronic health records (EHRs), which they can access anywhere from handheld computers. EHRs save physicians from having to read through pages and pages of handwritten notes to find the little details that can make a big difference in treatment. They alert physicians immediately to dangerous drug interactions and allergies. They enable prescriptions to be sent electronically directly from the handheld device to the pharmacy. They also allow researchers to track treatment outcomes so that they can gauge the quality of care and learn more quickly from clinical practice what works best.
For more, read Leavitt’s appeal, entitled “Improve health care by speeding switch to electronic records.”
