Dear Healthcare Providers,

I hope this letter finds you well. Last year, The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) became law. The HITECH Act will reimburse eligible professionals up to $44,000 under Medicare and up to $64,000 for purchasing and implementing a qualified EHR system. As you know, XLEMR is making every effort to ensure our software will support the yet to be defined requirements for meaningful use certification.

However, the HITECH Act also expands the scope of HIPAA in terms of penalties, compliance, and enforcement. Until recently, HIPAA has been laxly enforced. The HITECH Act significantly increases the risk exposure of non-compliance. We strongly recommend you being allocating resources for full HIPAA security rule compliance. Even if you do not wish to participate in HITECH, you still must comply. Please take a moment to review the changes outlined below:

HITECH Stage 1 objective - Ensure adequate privacy and security protections for personal health information (1):

• Goal - Ensure privacy and security protections through operating policies, procedures, and technologies.
• Measures - Conduct or review a security risk analysis, and implement security updates as necessary. (2)
• Full HIPAA security rule compliance not required for stage 1 . Stage 3 may require full security rule compliance. (3)

Expanded HIPAA requirements under HITECH:

• Mandatory penalties up to $250,000 with repeat violations up to $1.5 Million imposed for “willful neglect.” (4)
• Penalties may extend to business associates. (5)
• State Attorney Generals may sue providers on behalf of state residents. Previously, only the Office of Civil Rights was allowed to sue providers. (6)
• HHS is required to conduct periodic audits of covered entities and business associates. Previously, no audits were required. (7)
• Imposes data breach notification requirements for unauthorized uses and disclosures of unsecured PHI. A breach of more than 500 records requires providers to notify HHS. Provider’s name will be posted on HHS website. Local media may need to be notified. (8)

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the changes to HIPAA law or how this might affect your practice. Again, we strongly recommend you begin working towards full security rule compliance. We would like to offer our consulting services and solutions to help you achieve compliance. Please let us know how we can assist you.

Sincerely,

Ryan Ricks
Security Officer
678-908-3543
Ryan.ricks@xlemr.com
www.XLEMR.com

1. Interim Final Rule CMS-0033-P pg 1858
2. ibid pg 1870
3. ibid pg 1858
4. HITECH ACT, DIVISION A: TITLE XIII, Subtitle D, Part 1, 13410
5. HITECH ACT, DIVISION A: TITLE XIII, Subtitle D, Part 1, 13401
6. HITECH ACT, DIVISION A: TITLE XIII, Subtitle D, Part 1, 13410
7. HITECH ACT, DIVISION A: TITLE XIII, Subtitle D, Part 1, 13411
8. HITECH ACT, DIVISION A: TITLE XIII, Subtitle D, Part 1, 13402

The paperless office has long been the holy grail of IT professionals, managers, and business owners. Like the holy grail, true paperless offices seem to always be just out of reach. It is true, most offices will never be 100% paperless, but reducing your paper consumption will bring many benefits to your business. While not every business is ready to move to an electronic system such as enterprise resource planning, customer relations management, or electronic health records, scanning your paper records is an easy first step.

Scanning your paperwork can help your business grow. Labor costs related to faxing, filing, and printing can add up to several hundred dollars per employee per month. Going paperless allows you to refocus that labor on revenue-generating services. In addition, you can backup electronic documents both locally and remotely. Electronic backups can help protect your business from a disaster. Paper records are vulnerable and nearly impossible to back up.

Scanning your paper documents can save you space. Many offices we visit are cluttered with paper stored on shelves, in filing cabinets, or in boxes lining the hall or break room. Storing paper is a fire hazard, and it also takes up valuable office space. Many businesses have to rent offsite storage for their archived documents. Scanning can help you reclaim office space and save thousands on offsite storage rental.

We offer two scanning solutions: Bulk out-sourced scanning, and in-house scanning and archiving. Bulk-outsourced scanning is great for businesses that have a large amount of paper which they want to scan quickly. If your office is a cluttered fire hazard, or if you are spending thousands of dollars per year on offsite storage, bulk scanning could be for you. Bulk scanning is priced per image, and depends on the volume of documents and the amount of preparation work needed.

In-house scanning and archiving is great for ongoing day-to-day operations. If you have, or plan to purchase a fast scanner, our software will allow you to quickly scan and archive your documents. Our software can recognize certain data from your records, which allows us to automatically file your documents. Our software also creates a searchable, indexed database for fast retrieval. Price depends on how many scanning locations you need, the size of your office, and whether or not you already have a suitable scanner.

If your business is not ready to make the leap to a complete paperless solution, consider the benefits of scanning. Scanning your records can free up important resources so your business can run faster and more efficiently. If you would like more information about our scanning solutions, please contact your XLEMR representative.

Despite the vast amount of money the federal government is offering as incentives, physicians are still not purchasing electronic health records (EHRs). Although EHRs offer many benefits, physicians as a group seem to be more risk-averse than motivated by gains. Many feel the consequences of purchasing an EHR that does not meet meaningful use requirements outweighs any benefits of early adoption.

However, it is in the best interest of every EHR vendor to make sure their software is compliant. There is no reason to believe any reputable system will fail to meet meaningful use requirements. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of top ten reasons why physicians should put aside their fears and adopt early.

1. Physicians see a 25% increase in revenue due to appropriate E&M coding, industry wide.
2. Insurance providers offer discounts up to 10% for purchasing an EHR with e-prescribing and order management.
3. EHRs can save about $24,000 per year by reducing costs associated with paper, including materials and labor.
4. Electronic prescribing can save lives. Every year 1.5 million people become sick, injured, or killed from misread handwritten prescriptions.
5. EHRs allows you to document encounters in real time, eliminating the need to stay late catching up on your work.
6. EHRs can save about $30,000 per year on dictation and transcription costs.
7. EHRs eliminate illegible medical histories. Currently 15% of all histories are illegible.
8. Order management can help your patients follow up on labs and procedures, which improves care and reduces your malpractice liability.
9. EHRs allow you to backup and preserve data against catastrophes like fires or floods, which is impossible to do with paper charts.
10. Electronic prescribing checks formulary eligibility for drugs – saving you the time and hassle of pharmacy call-backs.

These are just some of the many benefits EHRs can offer your practice. The longer physicians delay EHR implementation, the longer they forego these benefits. In these days of declining patient volumes and falling reimbursements, it makes sense to run a more efficient, healthy practice. After all, if physicians want to help their patients, they first have to ensure their own practice is healthy and strong.

We're all in a holding pattern, waiting and waiting for HHS to vet the HITECH "meaningful use" guidelines. No one wants to forage ahead without a compass. But if you put off your plans any longer, you could miss out on incentive funding this year. Conversions take time; we're already in March.

How quickly can you implement an EHR solution? It's hard to say. Some conversions take as little as six months, some as long as two years. To qualify for 2009 HITECH funding, your system must be up and running by November at the latest. Mark Seavitt, chairman of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, recommended immediate action at the annual AHIMA conference in October- over five months ago. The clock is ticking!

Can you do anything to speed up the process? Perhaps. A lot will depend on the vendor or product you choose, but there are other factors. Staff readiness and availability, your hardware infrastructure, training resources, how you plan, and what you expect will affect your outcome. There are at least two keys to success: assigning talented, dedicated people to the task, and maintaining a positive attitude. If you're upbeat about the new system, your enthusiasm will trickle down to your staff; if morale becomes low, the project is doomed (see this invaluable planning guide from the AAFP for more information and advice). But even if you do everything right- buy the best product, hire brilliant technicians, implement everything seamlessly- your conversion could take many, many months. Rush the job and you may wind up saddled with an expensive, buggy system no one in your office wants to use.

How likely is it that the EHR product you buy today will meet the guidelines when they're announced tomorrow? Extremely likely. The IT sector has spent decades preparing for the digitization of health records. They've anticipated anything and everything the government could ask for. Chances are your EHR system will be capable of much more than the minimum required by HITECH.

So why wait? You know where health records are headed; you want to be in compliance, compatible with other providers and on the cutting edge of the health IT revolution. Choose an EHR wisely, and choose it soon!

February 21st is the last day you can apply for 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) funding. PQRI awards a bonus equal to 2% of the total amount you billed to Medicare/Medicaid in the given year. If you're a health care provider you are almost certainly eligible for this money. Don't let the window lapse! It’s not too late. An average GP can compile a PQRI report in a few hours. Electronic Heath Record (EHR) system users can do it even faster.

The concept, at least, is simple:

PQRI applies to services billed under a certain set of CMS claim codes. You create a report based on the eligible claim codes you used during the year. PQRI dictates how frequently each claim code can appear on the report: codes linked to periodic care for chronic conditions, like diabetes mellitus, can be reported perhaps only once per year per patient, whereas codes linked to specific care for acute conditions, like heart attack or stroke, can be reported as many times as you used them. Once you have the report, you assess whether or not you met the PQRI care requirements associated with each claim code on your report. Your rating will be a ratio of the all requirements you met to all the claim codes you listed.

Easy, right? Much more so when a computer does it for you. EHRs have awesome reporting capabilities; as EHRs increase in strength and prevalence, quality assessment practices of every stripe will become standard throughout the industry. So cash in while incentives are still being offered!

Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to apply for 2009 PQRI funding. The CMS PQRI portal has additional information and resources, including a toolkit. The AMA also has a resource page and toolkit.

If you're not sure you can pull a 2009 PQRI report out of your hat by yourself, consider consulting an EHR technician- even if you're not currently using an EHR. Many EHR providers are offering PQRI-related support. There are also services available online, for a fee. If you think you'll qualify for a large bonus, hiring a consultant might be worth the expense.

Act quickly. You've already earned it- go ahead and claim it! If not for 2009, think ahead to 2010. Failing to participate in PQRI might disqualify you for other forms of funding (it will almost certainly be a prerequisite for participation in the ARRA program rewarding the “meaningful use” of EHRs, for instance). Don't miss out. Start the process today!