Yesterday, I sat down with Practice Fusion’s Health Policy Manager, Thomas McMennamin, who gave me a sneak peak at his master plan for getting our users qualified for EHR incentives. Did you know Practice Fusion is going to help users through every stage of Meaningful Use? Users will get regular updates, tips on how to fulfill criteria and a status bar inside the application that measures your progress towards qualification. You’ll have everything you need to earn $44k over the next five years.
What are you going to do for PF users to help them qualify for stimulus money?
I want to help Practice Fusion provide the best and most digestible resources and make these available to qualified providers to make sure that the EHR stimulus process is really an easy process. I want to create tools that providers will use to guide them from the point of adoption to the point of Meaningful Use into the point where they receive their first and their last incentive check. Just by doing a survey on the resources out there that have come from vendors, from CMS or ONC, one thing that I found to be lacking is simplicity and creativity and I think Practice Fusion is really good at both of these and that’s what I want to bring to this process.
What goals have you set for yourself for Stage 1 of Meaningful Use?
My number one goal for Stage 1 of Meaningful Use is to update the Practice Fusion Stimulus Center and really make sure it equips every provider with the tools they’ll need to be able to achieve Stage 1 of Meaningful Use. I want to distill the most important pieces of information that are the most relevant for providers, so that they can come and see a well-designed page that guides them very easily through the process.
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| Thomas at the Practice Fusion HQ |
Once we’re certified, what will our users have to do in order to receive incentives?
Even before we’re certified, users should register. That’s the most important thing and they should do that now. I think a lot of users think that they have to wait until the attestation point but they should register right away. Once we’re fully certified, users are going to need to demonstrate Meaningful Use and the Practice Fusion EHR will actually guide you through this process by indicating where you’re going strong with Meaningful Use and where you need to step up your use of particular features so you will be able to see your progress. We will also provide tools along the way when it comes to the attestation process. Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Rowley, will be going through this himself, as he is a practicing physician, so we will be able to see his story and relay his experience to our users and use him as a guide.
Where do you see meaningful use standards evolving over the next few years?
Stage 1 is about getting the tools in the provider’s hands and having them use some of the key features at specific percentage amounts of time. Stage 2 is about connectivity, moving beyond just using the tools but also being able to connect providers in different locations. Stage 3 is about really meaningful exchanges of health information and then interoperability within the system.
How does Meaningful Use improve patient care?
Meaningful Use criteria have been designed specifically with the patient in mind and with the goal of improving patient care. It will focus specifically on improving quality, safety and efficiency of care and creating significantly improved standards of care coordination and involving a patient and his/her family in a much more thoughtful way than has been done in the past.
How is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) changing the landscape of the healthcare sector?
In my opinion, ARRA really represents the most significant U.S. government investment created to stimulate the adoption of HIT. It actually creates this incentive system where they say we want to move beyond that status quo, replacing paper with an electronic source and what we want to do is come up with neat and creative ideas that go beyond the transition from paper to electronic and have some meaningful and interesting health outcomes that will not only make the individual better but the population better.
What advice can you give to medical providers who are unsure about Meaningful Use?
The best advice is don’t be afraid of Meaningful Use, we’re here to support our providers throughout the entire process, and help them to distill key lessons from what the requirements are to ensure that they’re able to achieve them. Some doctors are very wary of the process and some don’t know very much about the process and that knowledge is key. Once you have that information you get far less afraid and we’re going to provide them with all the information they need to know.
Future predictions for health policy?
I think there’s going to be continued investment in health IT by the government. My guess is that over the years there will be other incentives to encourage doctors to adopt different means of technologies and the investment will continue to grow, especially as the investment has shown to have a really good return in health outcomes.
For more information on how you can qualify for stimulus monies, check out our Certification and Stimulus Center where we have all your FAQ’s answered.
Shea Steinberg
Jr. Social Media
Practice Fusion EHR
