(EHR) - ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

Time is Ticking Away for Physicians Who Plan to Convert to Electronic Health Records….

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the HITECH provisions within it provide incentives to eligible healthcare providers who convert from paper medical records to electronic health records within the next few years. The sooner you convert and prove "meaningful use," the greater the potential incentive reimbursement you may receive.

Converting to electronic health records can be overwhelming for many small healthcare practices, but if your patient base is 30% or more Medicare or Medicaid, chances are you have recognized that in order to sustain your practice’s long-term financial viability you need to convert to EHR.

Physicians who fit the designation “eligible providers” can earn between $44,000 and $64,000 over 5 years if they are using EHR and are able to prove “meaningful use” by 2012. Otherwise, government incentive payments  will decrease and eventually penalties will be instituted that will decrease your Medicare and Medicaid revenue reimbursements.

Healthcare transformation is a triple challenge - all within a specified timeframe:

1. Change Management - Technology change and cultural change

2. Meaningful Use - Government requirements that must be met to prove “meaningful use” in order to receive incentive compensation payments

3. IT Security/HIPAA Compliance - to protect patient information and ensure data privacy

If you have a small medical practice and don’t have a dedicated technology expert to support and guide you, where do you start? What do you do? With over 400 potential EHR solutions to choose from, how do you make the right decision?

ATIBA Technology Solutions can guide you on your healthcare transformation journey - we can help you select the best EHR solution for your practice, within the constraints of your budget. Our consultants have extensive experience helping organizations assess, select and implement the technologies that support their business requirements. We can work with the systems you currently have, or recommend new healthcare solutions that better meet your business requirements.

We will provide unbiased guidance during the software selection process and will manage your software implementation and the cultural change that is critical to success.

Proving "meaningful use" may well require a substantial investment of time and energy. Whether you have already implemented an EHR system or need assistance implementing one now, we will work hand-in-hand with you to prove "meaningful use" so that you receive the optimum incentive payments you are eligible to receive.

Additionally, HIPAA compliance requirements have been strengthened, audits will become more frequent and penalties for non-compliance are becoming more costly. Our on-demand Chief Security Officer and Chief Compliance Officer services can support your compliance efforts and help ensure patient information is kept private and secure.

Partner with ATIBA and take the pain out of healthcare transformation -  we know how to do it the right way!