The Role Of Medicare Incentive In Healthcare

Improved Essays
In August of 2006, President George W. Bush signed an executive order to promote the overall efficiency and quality of healthcare. The goal for this order was to increase information available among patients, medical providers, and insurance carriers; and to decrease medical errors. Meeting this goal would help control rising costs of healthcare for both the patient and insurance carriers. In 2011 an incentive program was established by the name of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program to encourage eligible professionals and eligible hospitals to adopt, implement, to upgrade, and demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records. "Meaningful Use" is a term describing documentation of demographic and health data into an electronic health record (EHR) with the purpose of improving safety and quality of care and reducing health disparities with "meaningful" information (Snyder, E. & Oliver, J. 2014). To fulfill the requirements for the Meaningful Use Program, eligible professionals must successfully complete the 3 main components of the program: 1) use certified EHR, 2) meet core and menu set objectives, and 3) report clinical quality measures (Aumula, N., & Sanelli, P. 2012, July 12). Eligible healthcare professionals have 25 meaningful use objectives, 15 core objectives and 10 menu set objectives. …show more content…
To qualify for the incentive payment 20 of the 25 objectives must be met, all 15 core objectives and 5 out of the 10 menu set objectives. If the 20 out of 25 objectives are met the eligible professional can receive up to $44,000 for 5 years under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. There is also an additional incentive for professionals that provide services in a Healthcare Professional Shortage Area. Under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program eligible professionals can receive $63,750 during the 6 years that they choose to participate. For the first reporting year of this stage Eligible Providers must meet the requirements by having a continuing amount of data for 90 days. During every year that the eligible healthcare professional participates in the program they must demonstrate Meaningful Use of a certified electronic health record. To receive this incentive, the provider must document the percentage of visits, diagnoses, prescriptions, immunizations, and other pertinent health information electronically; use the EHR clinical support tools; share patient information; and report quality measures and public health information (Booth, K. A., Whicker, L. G., & Wyman, T. D. 2014). In addition to a financial incentive, other benefits of complying with Meaningful Use guidelines include a reduction in medical errors, improved availability of patient records and data, reminders and alerts, clinical decisions, and e-prescribing/refill automation (Aumula, N., & Sanelli, P. 2012, July 12). Step 2 of this program will include all the steps in Step 1 and will add that EHR must be used to send and receive clinical information such as lab orders and reports. In order to continue on to Stage 2, in 2013 providers must have first demonstrated Meaningful Use in Stage 1 in 2011. The objectives for providers in Stage 2 have been raised, meaning they must demonstrate Meaningful Use of their Certified EHR Technology for an even bigger portion of their patient population. An Eligible Provider must meet certain criteria; they must meet 17 core objectives and 3 menu objectives that they can select from a list of 6 menu objectives. One of the new core objectives for this stage is to make sure that when using electronic messaging

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    EHR systems have been around for decades, but really gained national support in 2009. EHRs are electronic records of a patient's charts that include personal information, demographics, medical history, progress notes, medications currently taking and more. If a health center was not equipped with an EHR system then paper records were still kept and stored in the clinic. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 focus its attention on the short comings of archaic recordkeeping procedures and an incentive program was put in place to expand the use of…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary The meaningful use initiative was put in place so as to promote the use of the electronic health records. As a way of promoting the use of the EHR in the healthcare systems, the federal government committed more than 30 billion dollars as incentives for the organizations that were adopting the use of the EHR. The meaningful use initiative has gained popularity because it is one of the significant public investments in the healthcare sector in the last 30 years. As a way of promoting the use of the EHR, the eligible professionals receive payments through the Medicaid EHR Incentive and the Medicare EHR incentive (Jung, Unruh, Kaushal, & Vest, June).…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    EHR Adoption Analysis

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Firstly, time spent on paper-based tasks is significantly reduced with the implementation of EHRS. When staff members have easy access to the patient's records, they save time that would otherwise be spent searching for paper charts which therefore reduces paperwork. Moreover, EHRs would improve patient safety by keeping the records within a physician's office so the records are more secure. With patients having the ability to access their records ensures that they are in good hands with the physician and feel comfortable sharing their information. Finally, EHRs lead to faster responses to changes in treatment guidelines.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Widespread meaningful use of fully functional electronic health records (EHRs) combined with a robust infrastructure for broad-base health information exchange can improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare for all Americans” (Blumenthal, 2010). The EHR is an effective communication system that is designed to improve quality care and patient outcome by providing updated information on the patient. The functions of the EHR to include Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) and Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) are the backbone of the health care delivery system. Healthcare organizations must embrace implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE) is a system that allows providers to enter medical orders and instructions for treatment of patients.…

    • 2027 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) of 2009 was established to promote electronic medical record (EMR) adoption and electronic health information exchange. Furthermore, incentives and penalties were fixed to invoke health organizations to install EMR programs and achieve meaningful use standards set forth by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Overall, the HITECH Act and Meaningful use standards were created to improve quality of care, patient safety, and public health. In order to verify the outcome we will investigate the effects of computerized physician order entry (CPOE), computerized decision support systems (CDDSs), use of statistical reports, and health information…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Sharing patient charts and medical information with other health care providers is also made substantially easier with an EMR system. While EMR interoperation is a long term goal and one not realized yet, it is possible to select patient information, including lab results and other diagnostic information, and share that with other providers, substantially increasing the quality of patient care. Today hospitals are adopting, implementing, upgrading, or demonstrating the Meaningful Use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology. All in all, demonstrating meaningful use of certified EHRs takes time and resources. Through the EHR Incentive Programs, eligible hospitals, including critical access hospitals (CAHs), can qualify for EHR incentive payments totaling some $2 million or more.…

    • 2393 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    There are differences in the two incentive programs. The Medicare program includes “nonhospital-based” providers such as physicians and dentists (MD, DO, DOS, DDM), podiatrists, optometrists, and chiropractors. Medicare offers up to $44,000 in incentives. The Medicaid program includes nonhospital-based physicians to include nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, dentists, or physician assistants with greater than 30% Medicaid volume or 20% for pediatricians. This program includes up to $63,570 in incentives.…

    • 69 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Meaningful use has greatly impacted healthcare interoperability by implementing certified electronic health records (EHR). With EHR put into act we are now able to view real time information of patients medical history, past and current medications, immunization dates, any diagnoses or allergies, as well as testing and lab reports. It contains all complete and accurate information to give providers access to evidence based tools when making decisions of a patients care. Some EHRs now allow patients to access web portals to view their own health records and even email their doctors. A major contribution to why meaningful use has helped healthcare interoperability is the fact that electronic health records can be accessible to authorized staff…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Analysis of Meaningful Use Program According to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), meaningful use is defined as “the use of EHR in a way that positively affects patient care” (EHR Incentive Program, 2013, p. 2). The Meaningful Use Program created by the CMS includes a set of principles and objectives for the use of the Electronic Health Records (EHR). Eligible providers and eligible hospitals can make incentive dollars by implementing certified EHR with meeting the criteria included in the Meaningful Use Program. The purpose of this assignment is to analyze and understand the Meaningful Use Program.…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Value Based Reimbursement

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Making value-based healthcare work for patients and providers is challenging, but worth the effort. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), is designed to encourage more medical providers, specifically physician practices, embrace value-based health services. The new rule enacted in 2015 modifies electronic health record (EHR) Meaningful Use reimbursement guidelines. Larry Kocot, national leader of KPMG's Center for Healthcare Regulatory Insight, told Physicians Practice, although the CEHRT systems standards are optional for 2017, all MU participants will be required to meet performance expectations beginning in 2018.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (HIT) is highly advanced and been growing year after year. Health information technology offers great promise for improving the quality of care, including reducing medical errors, and lowering administrative costs, (Sipkoff, 2010). The great benefit from (HIT) is the lowering of costs for less paper usage with electronic records and fewer medical errors is a major advantage. More benefits to health technology for patients is (ehr’s) lessen your paperwork, (ehr’s) get your information accurately into the hands of people who need it, help doctors coordinate your care and protect your safety, and reduce unnecessary tests and procedures, (healthit.gov,2013). The tremendous amount of health information technology with the advantages listed, it’s the most highly reliable system for patients and…

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With the many different facts involved in this complex approach, the regulations that provide meaningful use (MU) have a profound impact on the effectiveness of the endeavor to produce better health care. Rouse defines meaningful use attestation as follows "Meaningful use attestation, in a health information technology (HIT) context, is a process that documents that an organization or individual has successfully demonstrated meaningful use and is successfully fulfilling the requirements for electronic health records (EHR) and related technology. " The stages of MU build upon the previous stage. Meaningful Use Stage 1 Lundy defines the spirit of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and meaningful use (MU) as "The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was intended to encourage physicians not just to adopt EHRs, but to use them in what the federal government described as a "meaningful" way.…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    For the past several decades, the federal government has been at the forefront in pushing for changes in the way healthcare industries handle patient health record or medical record. Although this policy dates back a few decades, it was intensified under George W. Bush administration who lied the groundwork for nationwide usage of EHR. By the time Obama took office in 2008, the first Healthcare IT Standards Panel Committee was established hoping to push for more changes. Shortly after, in 2009, congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment act, in which more than $27 billion was allocated to be disbursed among hospitals and practicing physician in order to incentive the adoption of EHR within healthcare system (U.S Department of Health…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Meaningful Use

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In conclusion I will summarize the key points. Overview of Meaningful Use The integration of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) into mainstream medical care has proven to be an important and necessary aspect of healthcare. To achieve this, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), developed the 3 step incentive program for healthcare providers. As stated in…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Implementing an electronic health record (EHR) strategy for a medical organization has the potential, and capacity, to transform the enterprise. However, simply purchasing and installing an EHR is not enough to improve quality of care or enhance patient experiences. Leveraging advanced technology to full advantage requires extensive training, and for many providers, the learning curve is steep. Training physicians how to access, organize and share data is critical for successful implementation. Here are a few tips to ensure teaching programs cover all the basics and empower physicians and their teams to exploit key features of their organizations EHR.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays