We are less than two weeks away from the first Eligible Providers (EPs) being able to submit online attestation in support of their application for CMS EMR incentives. In early April, the first wave of EPs will have met the requirement for 90 consecutive days of the meaningful use of Complete Certified Technology. Registration began in early January for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs and some EPs will be ready to document their Meaningful Use objectives online. CMS recently has been demonstrating screen shots of the web forms that will be used, and I’m glad to see they are straight forward. The online attestation process should not present major hurdles. What could be difficult is finding the data that documents Meaningful Use.
Let’s take one example: the MU Core Measure to “Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx).” The measure is that “more than 40 percent of all permissible prescriptions written by the EP are transmitted electronically using certified technology”.
The reporting EP has the option to limit this measure to only those patients whose e-prescribing records are maintained in the certified EHR. The denominator is the “number of prescriptions written for drugs requiring a prescription in order to be dispensed other than controlled substances during the EHR reporting period.” The numerator is the “number of prescriptions in the denominator generated and transmitted electronically.”
So where will these numbers come from for a specific EP during a specific reporting period? The answer is, “It all depends”. Some ONC Certified Complete EMRs have robust MU dashboards that reflect a mature ability to track each and every prescription produced by an EP. Other ONC Certified Complete EMR systems have MU dashboards that are totally manual and are incapable of tracking the underlying data. These systems do not generate a numerator or denominator but simply have input fields and it is up to the EP to somehow keep track of their total number of prescriptions (paper, electronic, called in). Depending on the specific certified EHR and a practice’s workflow, gathering this data could be very simple or an absolute nightmare which could threaten the ability to receive the incentives.
Jim Tate
Jim Tate, is a partner at HITECHAnswers.net, a leading independent resource to understand the impact of the HITECH Act. He is also President of EMRAdvocate and a veteran of numerous EMR implementations in the United States and Asia. He consults with EMR vendors on interface and functional specifications, marketing strategy, documentation and certification. Jim speaks frequently at national conferences on HIT adoption, EHR certification and Meaningful Use. Jim is committed to the proper use of technology to improve health care and may be reached at jimtate@emradvocate.com.
