CCHIT Certified EMR
The purpose of a IFR certified EMR / EHR is to understand the 2011 Ambulatory EHR criteria, the certification is designed to explain the benefits of certification and what else is needed to consider when physicians are choosing EHR or Electronic Medical Records Software. Every year a new concise guide to certification provides a new criteria and shows how certification of EHRs ensures that the EHR solution is a qualified electronic health records software under ARRA. These criterias will be further adjusted to meet the final 2011 meaningful use objectives required by HHS.
Qualified EMR
Some of the requirements to qualify for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), EHR Electronic Health Records, EMR Electronic Medical Records incentives:
- 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.
- 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.
e-Prescribing / PQRI
The inclusion of e- prescribing in the Medicare Modernization Act says that in 2009 and 2010, physicians who are using e-prescribing could receive an incentive payment of 2 percent of their overall Medicare reimbursement much as physicians who successfully report measures (one of which addresses e-prescribing) in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) may receive a 1.5 percent bonus in 2007 and 2008. The PQRI bonus for 2009 has been increased to 2 percent.
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.
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.
EMR Section 179
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.
Once EMR Stimulus Package has been awarded over the years ($44K - $64K), your EMR EHR Investment will net a profit, so it will be a FREE EMR EHR, and good business for you.
Final Criteria deadline December 31, 2009
| Before getting EMR |
EMR / EHR QUESTIONS WE CAN ADDRESS TO YOU
Workflow
- Will my workflow be affected by using an EMR / EHR?
- What is the difference between paperless and chartless?
- How much automation do I have in my practice?
Practice Management Software, Billing Software
- Do you currently have a scheduling or billing software?
- Is your billing software providing everything you need?
- What are the gaps with your billing software?
- Does your billing software also provide an EMR / EHR?
- If your billing software does not provide an EMR / EHR, how will you integrate them?
- If a provider offers a full package, is that the best option?
- How do I select the best and safest EMR / EHR ?
- Is there a fee for providing an interface for a third party EMR / EHR?
Outsourced Medical Billing Services
- Do you currently have scheduling software?
- Do you have an outside billing service company?
- Does the billing service provide you with scheduling software?
- How much are you paying for the billing service?
Do you think you are paying too much? - When was the last time you inquired about a new billing service?
- Are you happy with the service they provide?
- Do they provide billing reports, or are you just receiving the money they collect?
- How old are the oldest claims they have outstanding?
- Do they call your patients to collect the money they owe?
Investment
- How much should I expect to pay for an EMR / EHR?
- Should I buy or lease?
Is the proposed ROI realistic?
Conversions
- Is the conversion of my data worth it?
- How much should I expect to pay for this EMR conversion service?
- What patient or billing data can be converted?
- My billing software is very old and never updated, can the information be converted?
- Why is billing information so difficult to convert?
Planning
- When should I plan to acquire an EMR / EHR?
- How much longer should I wait to acquire the EMR/EHR solution?
- Should I convert my paper charts to an EMR right after or as part of my investment?
- Does the EMR / EHR provider convert my paper charts?
- Should I hire a company to scan my paper charts?
- If converting my paper charts is too expensive, what are my options?
- How long will it take to convert paper charts to an electronic format?
- What should I consider to have a successful implementation?
- When should I expect to be in production mode?
- Can I convert to EHR in phases or as one project?
- How will my decision to implement the EMR/HER impact my office staff?
- How comfortable do I feel with modern technology?
How comfortable is my office staff? - How technical should I, or my office staff, need to be to implement EMR / EHR ?
Training, Implementation & Support
- How long does it take to install & implement an EMR / EHR?
- Should I be afraid that it will not work?
- Should I pay for maintenance and support?
- Should I pay for the right to upgrades or updates?
- Who will install the upgrades for EMR / EHR software?
- How much will it cost me to upgrade to the current version if I am not paying for scheduled upgrades?
- Do I need a technical person in my office?
- Is my IT person the most indicated to have as the team leader for the implementation?
- If I use the services of my IT person, what role is he or she able to play?
- Do I need a Project Manager during the implementation of the EMR / EHR?
- Should I pay for support agreement?
How much should I pay for the support agreement? - Is there an additional charge every time I call customer support?
Hardware
- Do I need to replace my entire server for the new EMR / EHR?
- Where do I buy computer hardware?
- Will the EMR / EHR company provide the hardware along with the product?
- Will the EMR / EHR company assist me in buying the most optimal hardware?
- Will it be cheaper if I use the specifications of the hardware and buy it myself?
My hardware is just three years old, why am I being told to replace the hardware? - Will it be cheaper to let the provider bundle the hardware with the EMR / EHR solution?
- Which computer hardware is the best for the medical software?
Client Server / ASP
- Should I go with a Client Server Model or ASP Web Based?
- Is there a difference in functionality with Client / Server and the ASP Web based solution?
- What is the difference between ASP Internet based and Client / Server based?
- What would be the realized benefit of each EMR model?
- What would happen to my data if I decide not to continue with the ASP EMR model?
- What if I have not paid the monthly service and vendor does not allow me to connect to the ASP server?
- What if I have an emergency with a patient and I can't connect to the ASP server?
- What are the tricks companies use to get me into buying their EMR?
- What is the worst experience anyone can have after selecting the EMR / EHR provider?
- Which solution best serves my needs, Client / Server, ASP model, or Client / Server internet?
Data Protection
- Who is responsible to back up my server data?
- How often should I backup my server data?
- Can I backup my server data in a different location?
- Can I recover if my server goes down, how should I get prepared?
- What is disaster recovery?
- What is a contingency disaster plan?
How should I prepare in the event my office staff can not access the computers? - Will the EMR / EHR provider company recover everything as a part of the support?
- My IT person says that the data is lost, is it true?
How can I recover it? - Do I have to pay extra to recover my server and my data?
EMR / EHR Process Selection
- What is the functionality that I should look for when selecting the EMR / EHR software?
- What is the best company I should buy from ?
- When I am making selections, how many companies should I look at?
- When I am making selections, should I go with the first one that shows me exactly what I need?
- When I am making selections, should I limit the number of companies I am selecting from?
- The more EMR / EHR solutions I see, the more confused I become, how can I fix that?, Is it me?
- I have seen at least 15 EMR/ EHR companies, and none offers me what I really need.
- I have several EMR / EHR proposals, the prices are crazy, one very cheap, one that is almost unreachable, what do I do?
- I have seen several demos, what do I need to consider when determining which EMR solution is the best?
- I am a solo practitioner with two employees, should I be concerned about the lack of security?
- Should I let my IT person select the EMR / EHR for me?
- What is the scope my IT guy should cover during the selection?
- Which system will be best based on my IT proficiency?
- Do I have to select by law an EMR / EHR solution that is CCHIT certified?
- What if I choose the wrong EMR?
Other type of questions
- I am better at dictating, Can I use a speech recognition software instead?
- Will I get the stimulus package if I use just the speech recognition software?
- If I use the speech recognition software along with an EMR / HER, can I get the stimulus package?
- Am I being productive with the use of the speech recognition software along with the EMR?
- Should I continue with the transcription service after buying the EMR / EHR software?
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
EncounterNotes brings you the EMR Medical Software technology, and together we achieve the best practices.
EncounterNotes is a visionary Company with modern EMR Software, modern EHR technology
EncounterNotes also creates the paperless medical office with our high performance medical billing service. Claims are submitted next day, no exceptions
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