Anesthesia Department Management Update on Electronic Medical Records
Author : Doc Clemens
Update on Electronic Health Records and Meaningful Use for anesthesia providers.
Anesthesiologists need the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to make modifications to the Electronic Health Records Incentive Program Stage 1 meaningful use requirements. In current form, the vast majority of anesthesiologists will be eligible to participate but not able to successfully meet Stage 1 meaningful use requirements or receive Stage 1 incentive payments.
There is great inflexibility regarding the timeline for implementation in the law resulting in a daunting task for those writing the regulations. The Stage 1 meaningful use requirements focus on primary care and fail to address the practice intricacies of many medical specialties including anesthesiologists.
ONC acknowledged that Stage 1 meaningful use requirements will not be modified for any specialty including anesthesiologists; however, it did state that the needs of specialties may be addressed in the Stage 2 requirements. Given this new development, anesthesiologists deemed eligible under the EHR incentive program should work with their electronic health record (EHR) vendor and information technology department to assess whether Stage 1 or Stage 2 certification is feasible.
The Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program was created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). While a majority of anesthesiologists will be deemed “eligible professionals” and thus theoretically eligible to receive the incentive payments for the “meaningful use” of EHRs, most anesthesiologists cannot meet the Stage 1 meaningful use requirements. The full incentive payments for the Medicare incentive program is $44,000 per eligible professional over five years if they begin successfully attesting in 2011 or 2012, and $39,000 over three years if they wait to attest in 2013, when Stage 2 meaningful use requirements are expected to take effect. If an eligible professional does not begin meaningfully using a certified EHR, Medicare payment penalties are scheduled to begin in 2015.
Each anesthesiologist should consider five questions regarding meaningful use:
1. Am I an eligible professional?
2. Am I using a certified (or certifiable) electronic health record?
3. Does my use of the electronic health record satisfy the Stage 1 meaningful use criteria?
4. How can I influence my facility and vendor to implement a certified electronic health record?
5. How can I advocate CMS and ONC to ensure future meaningful use criteria incorporate the anesthesiologist’s unique clinical process?