AMCNO Physician Leadership Meets with Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding EHR project |
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This week, AMCNO staff and physician leadership joined healthcare representatives from area hospitals, health departments and businesses at a meeting with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Acting Director Kerry Weems to discuss a new CMS electronic health record (EHR) demonstration project. The meeting was held at the MetroHealth Medical Center, and was hosted by the Aligning Forces for Quality Northeast Ohio Collaborative. This CMS project is an effort to encourage physician practices to adopt and use electronic health records (EHR) in order to improve the quality of patient care. The project will provide incentives to primary-care physician practices that use EHRs to improve quality as measured by their performance on specific clinical quality measures. The goal of this CMS demonstration project is to revolutionize the way health care data is managed, producing better health outcomes and greater patient satisfaction. The demonstration project is designed to show that widespread adoption and use of EHRs will reduce medical errors and improve the quality of care for an estimated 3.6 million consumers. Over a five-year period, the project will provide financial incentives to as many as 1,200 small and medium-sized primary-care physician practices that use certified EHRs to improve quality as measured by their performance on specific clinical quality measures. Participating practices will be required to use electronic records to perform specific functions, such as clinical documentation and ordering prescriptions. While the core incentive payments to practices will be based on performance on the quality measures, the bonus will be based on how well integrated the certified EHR is in managing patient care. Total payments under the project may be up to $58,000 per physician or $290,000 per practice. The meeting in Cleveland was an opportunity for physicians and community leaders to learn more about the project and to determine if the project could be applied in our community. HHS will soon open an application period for communities interested in becoming one of the pilot program’s 12 sites. The intent is to engage entire communities in identifying primary-care physician practices to participate in the demonstration and to support the efforts of these physician practices. CMS will focus on locations where the demonstration may enhance existing or planned private sector projects related to health information technology and quality reporting initiatives. Eligible communities will include those that can demonstrate active community stakeholder collaboration as well as private sector support; are geographically large enough to have a sufficient number of primary-care physician practices; and are not already participating in a CMS demonstration that conflicts with the EHR project. CMS expects that the demonstration will start with four communities in 2008, with the remainder beginning in 2009. The AMCNO physician representatives present at the meeting will continue to be involved in the discussions regarding this project in the coming months. To learn more about the new EHR demonstration project, visit: |
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