Stevie's Blog

I know it has been awhile since I updated my blog, but I have to say it has been a whirlwind!  I still find it amazing how much education is still needed to physicians about the differences between Stimulus reimbursement vs. Regional Extension Centers vs. e-RX and PQRI initiatives.  I was recently asked to chair the Implementation Committee for the HIT Commission that I am already on.  It has been broken into three sections - Policy, Technology and Implementation.  Education is a significant component of my committee, and I will be scheduling educational sessions across the state as soon as possible.  Plans are in the works so stay tuned for HIC events on the website.  In addition, I put the link to the HIT Commission site under Helpful Links.  Please see that site regularly to keep updated on what the Commission is doing on a state level.

So lets continue to talk about Stimulus.  The same that I hear every day and I hope this is helpful to you.  One of the most recent misconceptions is the language around "hospital based physicians".  I have several hospitals that are clients.  Many are very confused about whether the physicians that are employed by the hospital in their hospital owned practices are eligible for stimulus reimbursement.  This is not clearly defined yet.

As of now, the Stimulus Bill states:

ARRA definition of “hospital-based eligible professional”: The term “hospital-based eligible professional” means, with respect to covered professional services furnished by an eligible professional during the EHR reporting period for a payment year, an eligible professional, such as a pathologist, anesthesiologist, or emergency physician, who furnishes substantially all of such services in a hospital setting (whether inpatient or outpatient) and through the use of the facilities and equipment, including qualified electronic health records, of the hospital. The determination of whether an eligible professional is a hospital-based eligible professional shall be made on the basis of the site of service (as defined by the Secretary) and without regard to any employment or billing arrangement between the eligible professional and any other provider.

Okay...so what does that mean?  It means that it is not defined if a physician in the "outpatient" practice of the hospital is truly eligible.  Even if they are, it may only be a partial reimbursement.  By law, everything is supposed to be fully defined from what an eligible provider really means, exceptions and inclusions to that definition, as well as fully defined criteria and payment information.  Please read the stimulus bill carefully.  I also provided a link to the full version under the Education menu.  I will also update this blog with details as I get them. 

I welcome feedback and suggestions when it comes to planning and implementing the statewide HIE and EHR plan.  For those of you who truly know me, you know that I am a physician advocate.  I will take all of your feedback very seriously and present to my committee issues that are relevant and impacting. Please use my This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it address to send feedback to me.  I may not respond to every email, but you can be sure that I will be reading them.

I am doing an educational session on December 10th in conjunction with Fox Rothschild.  They are a premier law firm that has a large healthcare base and we are discussing how to successfully select and implement an EHR solution.  We are also discussing legal and Stimulus issues.  Dr. Jack Cappitelli from New Jersey Associates in Medicine is speaking with me.  He is a valued client and successful implementer of EHR.  He has a large multi-specialty practice and has a lot of valuable information to share along with me on best practices and lessons learned.

In addition, I am discussing the Department of Labor and Workforce Development Grants that I write with my business affiliate Traci Totino, PhD.  She is the most brilliant grant writer out there.  We have many grants in progress and in the works to help physician practices and healthcare organizations obtain EHR selection, implementation and training for free!  Also, you get tremendous staff development training by Traci's organization as well.  She provides basic computer skills, customer service training, six sigma and much more.  Further information on the event is under HIC Events within the Education menu.  

Make sure you subscribe to the RSS Feed for my blog.  My consultants will also start writing blogs as well.  They will share their specific experiences in our client offices, anonymously of course!  They will be very exciting and educational to read.  I am sure comical too!  Thank you for visiting, and I will be sharing more with you soon.

Written by Stevie Davidson Thursday, 21 May 2009 16:54

I have found myself speaking quite a bit lately in forums, to clients and other venues on HITECH/ARRA.  It concerns me how confused healthcare professionals are with regards to how the physician reimbursement part of the ARRA is outlined and how it relates to them.

Even though "meaningful use" still needs to be defined, physicians are still under the impression that the reimbursement set from 2011-2015 will provide them with up front funding to purchase their EHR.  This is not the case.  It is important to realize that medical practices must make the initial up-front investment into their EHR solution.  They need to choose a product that is certified by a recognized body of certification, which is currently CCHIT. Reimbursement is per provider and not by practice, and physicians employed by hospitals are currently defined as not eligible.