Officials: More education needed on stimulus lawWhat health care providers don’t know about the health information technology funding available under the financial stimulus law could hurt them financially, speakers at a Washington briefing said last week. At the same time, educating providers about all the health IT “carrots and sticks” in the law won’t be easy, they said.
Neal Neuberger, executive director of the Institute for e-Health Policy, which sponsored the briefing, said a good portion of the $2 billion set aside for the Office of the National Coordinator should be spent on educating providers on the law's fine points, including timetables, incentives, and financial risks associated with health IT adoption.
Either that, or more funding should be made available – possibly through federal budget legislation now under consideration – to cover education and outreach to health care providers.
Noting that a huge amount of work was done in a short time to put together the law's health IT provisions, Neuberger said, “Now everybody is being tasked to think of what do we do further … in the budget to fill in some of those gaps,” said Neuberger. “I know a lot of the [congressional] staff [members are] asking the same questions right now.”
One point that must be hammered home quickly is that to qualify for financial incentives under the law, providers must purchase electronic medical records certified as meeting standards sanctioned by the Department of Health and Human Services, said Bill Finerfrock, executive director of the National Association of Rural Health Clinics.
Finerock said providers also must know it will not be necessary to wait to buy systems until the incentives begin in 2011 to get benefits. The payments, are not for EHR purchase, but for adoption and “meaningful use,” he said.
The term “meaningful use” will ultimately be defined by the HHS Secretary.
Providers should also be up to speed on penalties in the law for not adopting EHRs, said Finerfrock. The law reduces Medicare payments to providers beginning in 2015 if they do not adopt EHRs and meet the standard for meaningful use. That year the cut could be 1 percent of the normal payment level, but it would increase by a percentage point each year to a maximum of 5 percent.
"I think people should search out someone who is ahead on this,” said Nancy Vorhees, chief operating officer of Inland Northwest Health Services in the Seattle area. The year 2015, “is like tomorrow,” she said. |
发表于 2009-3-19 08:52:54