- Provider for Medicare or Medicaid;
- Be a meaningful EHR user
- Physicians must qualify
- Proves to have implemented a qualified EHR software and be interoperable
Physicians with a qualified EHR, qualified EMR in place before 2011 or 2012 will be eligible for the maximum Medicare incentive payments allowed by the stimulus package. Doctors who have not adopted an EHR before 2015 and who fail to obtain a hardship exemption will see a 1% cut to Medicare pay, a reduction that phases up to 3% for 2017 and remains each year after that.
In 2011, however, the reward for e-prescribing will begin to decrease, a fee for not using e-prescribing will begin in 2012. The e-prescribing incentive payment will be 1 percent in 2011 and 2012, and 0.5 percent in 2013. The fee for not using e-prescribing will be a reduction in Medicare reimbursement by 1 percent in 2012, 1.5 percent in 2013, and 2 percent in 2014.
Depreciation and Expenses 2009
Section 179 limits. The maximum expense deduction you can elect for qualified property you placed in service in tax years that begin in 2009 remains at $250,000 ($285,000 for qualified enterprise zone property and qualified renewal community property). This limit is reduced by the amount by which the cost of property placed in service in the tax year exceeds $800,000
Under the 2008 Economic Stimulus Act (ESA), you can take further advantage of the Section 179 expense allowance to write off the entire cost of your new and used Healthcare equipment purchases in 2008.
Specifically, the expense allowance has been temporarily increased from $128,000 to $250,000 for taxpayers with total capital investments of $800,000 or less. Equipment acquired with a capital lease ($1 purchase option) and placed into service by December 31, 2008 is eligible for the increased allowance.
| Before getting EMR |
CCHIT CERTIFIED EHR SOFTWARE, THE WORST NIGHTMARE
If you found this article searching the Internet, you found us becasue we want to discuss about what you should expect if you choose the wrong EMR / EHR. EncounterNotes provides just proven solutions, solutions that along with our Implementation methodologies, and our portfolio of products and services you will be proud of having them in your office..
But for now, enjoy the article.
Many young physicians or new generation of them, have learned very fast the importance of organizing methodologies that bring a lot of value to every single task. In the old times, physicians were prepared to strictly manage the patient care, and do the best what they like and love to do with the patient's care. The "old school" saying sounds very bad, but we find there the best physicians, they have also had to learn new technology to treat patients, and that technology lasted only a few years, before they found that advanced equipment were on the market already.
Physicians have suffered the impact of many changes in the last 20 years:
-
Medical Equipment
-
Competition
-
Insurance companies making the impossible to avoid paying claims
-
Complex and absurd methodologies to follow up claims
-
Complex coding
-
Recession, the impact of patients not paying their bills
-
Promising software that really did not help at all
-
Constant reduction of medical allowed fees.
All of the above constraints, are the result of the market itself, the frauds made by some non-MD owners of practices, and taking advantage of the holes of the system to corrupt it. Also, good sales people have taken physicians to the wrong path, promising something that is not achievable.
Maybe you have heard the saying "this doctor is cheap". For those that have said that before, think again before you say it, physicians have fought over and over for their interest because they have been bombarded enough, and have paid a big price for each undelivered promise.
Now we come with EMR / EHR technology, wow!!! another promise. It is not easy for physicians to accept it and put it in place. They do not want to be ripped-off again. Yes there are bad EMR / EHR that have completed the CCHIT certification. Only because they passed, it does not mean it is a good software. The CCHIT certification is to validate if the software complies with the requirements set for that year, it does not mean that the software performs well in any computer, the design is user friendly, the software does not have any problems, that the software is applicable for your specialty, or the support you will get is the best or excellent. Be aware that there are CCHIT certified EHR / EMR software that will be the worst nightmare for you.
As we said before, the software is not everything, organizing yourself at the practice it is as imperative as the software itself, and you need to jump into the EMR / EHR to be competitive with your next door physician, plus implementing the benefits to reduce costs, and increase revenues. All of this obviously without counting the goodwill achieved through enhanced image.
EncounterNotes has done all the research for you, so you do not fall in traps that later you may be dissapointed, but still, if you want to continue doing your research and once you have picked your CCHIT certified EMR / EHR, make sure that you will get:
- Friendly design
- The response time of the software is excellent
- It will apply to your specialty (very few EMR's are specialized in one specialty only)
- Recognized database technology
- Recognized development platform technology
- Support is a global word, what is the meaning of support for that company
- The response time for support is adecuate (call their support line, and find out how fast you get a support person)
- Crash assistance, don't wait to have a disaster to find out that is not supported.
- Never accept the saying "this software will never crash"
- Public company or Private company.
EncounterNotes provides you with the following EMR Software Products, Medical Billing Service, and technology Services
Medical Software | Practice Management Software | Medical Scheduling Software | Telephony Reminder Software - ReminderPro | Medical Billing Software | Electronic Medical Records Software | EMR Software / EHR Software | Telephony Lab System | Medical Billing Service
For more Information
Feel free to contact us so we can provide you with more insight information. Remember that we are consultants and not sales people, so the conversation will be more straight to your point not to ours. If you do not have time right now, just leave us your information and we will call you at the time you specify in the free demo request form
Just $30 a month with our EMR/EHR Software, or
125 to 249 calls - 20¢/ call
250 to 999 calls - 18¢/ call
10,000+ calls - 10¢/ call