Lancaster Medical Society News

CMS Announces List Serv Signup for EHR Incentive Program Information

CMS EHR Listserv
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has a new listserv about the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs. The listserv will provide timely, authoritative information about the programs, including registration and attestation updates, and details about the payment process.

By subscribing to the listserv, CMS will keep you informed of upcoming deadlines and give you answers to questions and concerns that we have gathered from eligible professionals and hospitals in the field. New updates will be circulated on the listserv to keep you informed of any developments, and subscribers will be notified of any new Frequently Asked Questions that are published on the CMS EHR Incentive Programs’ website. The e-mail messages are another CMS resource, in addition to those listed below, which will help you navigate the Incentive Programs.

We encourage you to let others know about the CMS EHR listserv, and to share its messages. Click here to join the listserv and learn more.

The CMS EHR Incentive Programs website features the following resources:
• Path to Payment—Learn the necessary steps to receiving payments for the meaningful use of electronic health records.
• Registration Guides—Review a user guide of how to register and watch a video webinar that will help you navigate the registration website.
• Meaningful Use—Read more about the details of meaningful use and how to meet the requirements.
Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?
Make sure to visit the EHR Incentive Programs website at http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Registration Call
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) invites you to join us for a national provider call addressing how Eligible Professionals can register for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. Learn if you are eligible for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, how to register and what other steps you must take to receive an incentive payment. We will also discuss switching between the Medicare and Medicaid Programs, reassigning incentive payments, and how to get help. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.
Date:  Friday February 18, 2011
Conference Title:  Registration for the Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program for Eligible Professionals
Time:  1:00 -2:30 p.m. ET
Target Audience: Eligible professionals under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program:
• Physicians (primarily doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy)
• Nurse practitioners
• Certified nurse-midwives
• Dentists
• Physician assistants who furnish services in a Federally Qualified Health Center or Rural Health Clinic that is led by a physician assistant.
To qualify for an incentive payment under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, an eligible professional must meet Medicaid patient volume criteria.
Register Now:  In order to receive the call-in information, you must register for the call. It is important to note that if you are planning to sit in with a group, only one person needs to register to receive the call-in data.  This registration is solely to reserve a phone line, NOT to allow participation. 
Registration will close at 1:00 p.m. ET on February 17, 2011, or when available space has been filled.  No exceptions will be made, so please be sure to register prior to this time.
1. To register for the call participants need to go to:
http://www.eventsvc.com/palmettogba/081110
2. Fill in all required data. 
3. Verify that your time zone is displayed correctly in the drop down box.
4. Click “Register”.
5. You will be taken to the “Thank you for registering” page and will receive a confirmation email shortly thereafter.  Note: Please print and save this page, in the event that your server blocks the confirmation emails.  If you do not receive the confirmation email, please check your spam/junk mail filter as it may have been directed there.
6. If assistance for hearing impaired services is needed the request must be sent to no later than 3 business days before the event.

Materials will be made available prior to the training on our website .

Cannot attend? A transcript and MP3 file of the call will be available approximately 3 weeks after the call at on the CMS website. CMS website

ONC YouTube Videos
ONC recently posted two videos on YouTube that you may want to share with your partners.  While you cannot link to the videos here, your partners will be able to make good use of them:
o Check out the Beacon Community Program video to learn from health IT leaders about the challenges facing America’s health care system, and the opportunities health IT provides for improvement.  The video features an overview of the Beacon Communities, who serve as examples of health IT in action. These communities have made significant inroads in the development of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record adoption and health information exchange.
o Also, check out the latest ONC video of Dr. Blumenthal discussing why eligible health care providers and hospitals should register now for the CMS Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs.

ONC Technical Assistance to Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Hospitals
ONC to provide additional funding to accelerate critical access and rural hospitals’ switch to electronic health records
Dr. David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, national coordinator for health information technology in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today announced an additional $12 million in new technical support assistance to help critical access hospitals (CAHs) and rural hospitals adopt and become meaningful users of certified health information technology. Today’s funding announcement will come through ONC’s Regional Extension Center (REC) program to provide a wide range of support services to the 1,777 critical access and rural hospitals in 41 states and the nationwide Indian Country, headquartered in the District of Columbia, to help them qualify for substantial EHR incentive payments from Medicare and Medicaid.  This funding is in addition to the $20 million provided to RECs in September 2010 to provide technical assistance to the CAHs and Rural Hospitals.
“Critical access and rural hospitals are a vital part of our healthcare system.  Health information technology can offer rural health care providers and their patients resources and expertise that may not be currently available in their communities.  We recognize that the transition to electronic health records (EHRs) is a challenge and that rural facilities face even greater challenges to make the transition from paper to electronic records,” Dr. Blumenthal said.  “This additional funding recognizes the need to address these challenges and represents another important milestone in our commitment to critical access and rural hospitals throughout the country as they transition to EHRs.”
The new funding is provided under the Health Information Technology Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The HITECH Act created the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs, which will provide incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and CAHs that adopt and demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Incentives totaling as much as $27.4 billion over 10 years could be expended under the program, which is administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In addition, the HITECH Act provided $2 billion through ONC to support technical assistance, training, and demonstration projects to assist in the nation’s transition to EHRs.
The additional CAHs and rural hospital funding will be administered through ONC’s Regional Extension Center (REC) program.  The RECs are specifically designed to offer a wide range of hands-on technical assistance, guidance, and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of certified EHRs under the Medicare and Medicaid incentives programs. A total of 62 RECs are located throughout the country.  This additional funding is being awarded 48 RECs serving CAH and rural hospitals provides in 41 states and the nationwide Indian Country.
Serving CAHs and rural hospitals is a priority for the REC program. The intent of this supplement is to provide additional technical support to critical access and rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds in selecting and implementing EHR systems primarily within the outpatient setting.  The national distribution of RECs make them a particularly effective program to provide community-based hands-on, field support needed to overcome unique barriers that CAHs and rural hospitals may confront as they work to adopt and meaningfully use health IT.
Today’s $12 million round of awards will result in a total of approximately $32 million of funding provided to the RECs to support CAH health IT adoption. The awards announced today available here.
A complete listing of REC grant recipients and additional information about the Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers may be found at http://www.HealthIT.hhs.gov/programs/REC/.
For information about the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs, see http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms
For information about the Recovery Act at HHS, see http://www.hhs.gov/recovery.
ONC Standards & Interoperability Framework Program
ONC has launched a number of initiatives under its Standards and Interoperability (S&I) Framework Program to support the development of health care specifications in order to facilitate wider use of standards and an increased level of health IT interoperability across the nation. While the original deadline for participation in the program has passed, ONC is still requesting participation by stakeholders interested in making meaningful contributions in this area. Participating organizations and individuals would be required to (1) regularly attend weekly Initiative Group meetings, and (2) meaningfully participate in developing needed deliverables, such as the development of source code, documentation development, and/or supporting implementation of the S&I Framework pilot efforts. If you are interested in participating in this process, please contact to request a Jira wiki account. Please also include your Statement of Commitment as outlined here: 
o Participant Name(s):
o Participant Title(s):
o Organization:
o Email Address(es):
o Statement of Commitment:
See examples on the Statement of Commitment Tracker page – be sure to include which initiative(s) you wish to join.
Committed Deliverables:
Workgroup Commitment(s):
If your organization has more than one committed member, please specify which members are participating in each of the workgroups. There is no limit to the number of workgroups a member may participate in, or the number of members that may participate in workgroups from an organization. Initiative workgroups are described on each of the initiative pages. Current workgroups include:
• Lab Results and Transitions of Care initiatives: “Use Case,” “Harmonization,” and “Vocabulary”
• CDA Consolidation initiative: “Harmonization,” “Documentation,” and “Validation”
• If you do not yet know which workgroups you will participate in, you may leave this blank.

Patrick M. Hamilton
Health Insurance Specialist/Rural Health Coordinator
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Philadelphia Regional Office