“Tips for Overcoming the Gray Areas of Meaningful Use Stage 1 for Safety Net Providers”

Tuesday December 13, 2011, 2 pm EST

This webinar provides tips and guidance of how safety net providers, such as health centers, critical access hospitals, and rural health clinics can overcome common gray areas of meeting Meaningful Use Stage 1 objectives.  Gray areas are objectives within the final rule that are still not clear to providers.  Presenters from the Regional Extension Centers (REC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will review these problem areas based on previous comments and questions directed to HRSA, CMS, and ONC staff from safety net providers.  These areas include: dealing with vendors and other EHR issues; attesting data to CMS and State Medicaid programs; troubleshooting quality measures; and other Meaningful Use Stage 1 problems that safety net providers have encountered.  In addition, this webinar will include a presentation by CMS Staff on “Adopt, Implement, and Upgrade” (AIU) of electronic health records.

Presenters include staff from both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Regional Extension Centers.  Questions to presenters are welcome ahead of the event and may be emailed to healthit@hrsa.gov.

• To register:  http://webcast.streamlogics.com/audience/index.asp?eventid=84138124
• Email questions or comments to HRSA’s Health IT mailbox at:  healthit@hrsa.gov
• Previous HRSA Health and Quality Webinars are available at:  http://www.hrsa.gov/healthit.

On November 30th, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced policy changes designed to make it easier for health care providers and hospitals to qualify for meaningful use incentive payments, Modern Healthcare reports.  Sebelius announced the changes during an event at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland (Modern Healthcare, 11/30).  Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.

Under current regulations, eligible health care providers that attest to Stage 1 of the Medicare EHR incentive program this year would need to meet Stage 2 requirements in 2013. However, health care providers who attest to Stage 1 in 2012 would not need to meet Stage 2 requirements until 2014, but they still would be eligible for the same total incentive payment amount (DeParle, “White House Blog,” 11/30).

To encourage greater participation in the meaningful use program, Sebelius said that health care providers who meet Stage 1 requirements this year would not need to meet the Stage 2 standards until 2014. According to an HHS statement, “Doctors who act quickly can also qualify for incentive payments in 2011 as well as 2012″ (Modern Healthcare, 11/30).

HHS said it will launch outreach efforts to inform health care providers and health IT vendors about the policy changes. The agency said it will target outreach, education and training to eligible health care providers that have registered for the Medicare EHR incentive program but have not yet met the meaningful use requirements.

CDC Survey on Health IT Adoption

Also on Wednesday, Sebelius announced that CDC has released a new survey finding that the percentage of U.S. physicians who have adopted basic EHRs has doubled from 17% in 2008 to 34% in 2011. During the same time period, the percentage of primary care doctors using basic EHRs nearly doubled from 20% to 39%.

The survey also found that 52% of office-based U.S. physicians now plan to participate in the meaningful use incentive program (HHS release, 11/30).  Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2011/11/30/sebelius-announces-changes-to-timeline-for-meaningful-use.aspx#ixzz1fHQJpKOb.

CMS has contracted with Lantana Consulting Group to convene two TEPs.  The TEP will provide input on the development, selection, and maintenance of quality measures for which CMS contractors are responsible. Convening the TEP is one important step in the measure development or reevaluation process that ensures transparency and allows an opportunity to obtain balanced, multi-stakeholders input. TEP members are recognized experts in the relevant fields including clinicians, statisticians, quality improvement experts, methodologists, and pertinent measure developers. TEP members are chosen to provide input to the measure contractor based on their personal experience and training. The TEP is chosen to represent a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds.

They are currently soliciting nominations for two Technical Expert Panels (TEPs) supporting a new “eQuality” project for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) EHR incentive program established under ARRA HITECH.  More information and instructions for nominating yourself or others can be found at http://www.cms.gov/mms/15_technicalexpertpanels.asp

• The eQuality Continuity Assessment Record & Evaluation (CARE) TEP will review the proposed e-specifications for CARE and inform how CARE could fit into an EHR transfer of care workflow.

• The eQuality EHR Systems Reporting of Clinical Quality Measures TEP will help inform how EHR systems collect and report clinical quality measures in an electronic format and how such records could connect patient care outcomes with EHR clinical data.

You are invited to review the information on the website and consider participation.  They are extending the call for nominations past the stated deadline of November 23, 2011; however, they ask that you please notify them of your intent to submit a nomination by sending an email to eQualityTEP@lantanagroup.com.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) provides tools and resources around disaster medicine and public health.  For daily news bytes, follow DIMRC on twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/NLM_DIMRC.  If you are looking for a more in-depth review of items, subscribe to the DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB listserv http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/dimrclistserv.html

You can find a listing of NLM social media tools on the “Follow, Fan and Connect with NLM” page http://www.nlm.nih.gov/socialmedia/.

The December issue (http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/) of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now available!  In this edition:

http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2011/Feature1http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2011/Feature1

• Weighing in on Dietary Fats
• Some Fats Are Healthier Than Others
• With the winter holidays upon us, you’ll likely be surrounded by family, friends and food.  Favorite foods, though, can be high in fat.  Learn which fats are naughty and which are nice to your health, so you can make smarter food choices.  Read more about dietary fats.

http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2011/Feature2

• You’re Never Too Old
• Keep Active as You Age
• We’ve all heard that exercise is good for you. Did you know that it’s as true for older people as it is for any age group? You’re never too old to get moving, get stronger and improve your health.
• Read more about staying active at any age.

Click here http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/files/Dec2011/NIHNiHDec2011.pdfto download a PDF version for printing.

Visit our Facebook wall http://www.facebook.com/NewsInHealth to suggest topics you’d like us to cover, or start a discussion about how you use the newsletter.  We want to hear what you think!

Please pass the word on to your colleagues about NIH News in Health.  We are happy to send a limited number of print copies free of charge for display in offices, libraries or clinics.  Just email us nihnewsinhealth@od.nih.gov or call 301-435-7489 for more information.

The Michael E. DeBakey Library Outreach Services Award is now accepting nominations for 2012:  http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/842329/e852ed01fe/1573068959/683598f936/.

Check out the new redesigned site:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/aidsinfo_infosida_redesign.html.

In JAAPA’s “Ask a Librarian” this month, topics that include how to evaluate the results of evidence-based literature searches, as well as use of the Evidence Pyramid for categorizing results:  http://bit.ly/vSHbZG.

Free registration is required to access JAAPA’s columns and articles, and you may choose Institution/Library as a profession.

December 1^st is coming fast.  Here’s a reminder in the Technical Bulletin on this important topic:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd11/nd11_gateway_transition.html.