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Best Practices for Family Physicians to adopt EHRs - October 13, 2010
Steven Waldren, MD, director of the Center for Health Information Technology for the American Academy of Family Physicians, has helped many small physician practices implement and adopt EHRs.
At yesterday’s National Regional Extension Center & Health Information Exchange Summit West in San Francisco, Waldren shared best practices and lessons learned.
Before your office makes any changes, you need to have a financially stable practice, he said. Implementing an EHR is a major disruptive process and one that can shut a small practice down if it isn’t stable enough to endure a steep learning curve.
Next, you need to ensure that you have leadership, management and teamwork in place to guide the office through this transformative time.
Finally, small practices need to understand that implementing technology requires dedicating time for change management and process design, so find a partner that has done this before, a partner that has certiifed trainers and local support, like Sencilo HealthIT Solutions.
Waldren outlined four steps to health IT adoption, and those steps must all be taken and in this order: preparation, selection, implementation and maintenance. Do not go directly to select. A lot of preparation must be done in order to determine how your office goes about selecting a vendor.
Waldren talked about driving quality with health IT. Meaningful use means being able to track and measure quality metrics for improved patient care. But you can’t measure if you can’t capture discrete data in a standardized form. That’s the value of health IT.
Small physician practices often ask how to embed knowledge into their system. Waldren recommends developing evidence-based documentation templates for your EHR.
The physician office needs to ensure that the system that is implemented needs to be reliable in order to track tasks and results.
Implementing a system will result in a shift of work among office staff. Take advantage of the technology to allow team members to do high-level task. In the meantime, remember to remove repetitive tasks and increase communication within the care team especially during the learning curve.
Finally, stop the paper chase; in other words, once you adopt health IT, don’t cling to the old processes.
Many physician practices won’t be able to go through this major transformation alone. They will need outside assistance to help them in many areas, including, aggregating and filtering the health IT chaos and noise. RECs can help with vendor contracting, provide basic IT assistance, help practices establish professional business practices, assist with project and change management, as well as process redesign. They can also be an advocate during implementation. glostream
At a certain point, physicians need an assessment to determine technology requirements and build buy-in. They will also need to establish a long-term plan that takes into account the timeline for stages one through four and beyond.
For more infomation please call (877) 904-4EHR or click: www.sencilo.com
Not Ready for EHR? How about Converting paper charts to electronic medical records - October 9, 2010
We are a little over two years into our electronic medical records implementation at the time of this writing. Since we have been performing a gradual rollout, the entire process has been relatively uneventful. Most of the credit for this goes to our chief information officer (technospeak for the head of our IT department) and our practice administrator.
One of the biggest challenges we have been facing is how to convert all of the paper records into electronic ones.
Since we started our EMR implementation with just new patients, we initially were entering brand-new data on those patients and there wasn’t anything to convert. But as we started adding established patients – those patients that had an existing paper chart – we had to deal with two issues: how much of the paper chart do we convert to a digital format and how do we make the majority of the existing clinical history available to the physician? Before I tell you what we did, let’s discuss some options for dealing with conversion of paper records to electronic records.
All patient charts are scanned into the electronic medical records (EMR) system. If your practice is running out of physical office space, as we were, this is an attractive option. Unfortunately, it is easy to underestimate the cost in terms of man-hours. Note also that while the actual scanning of medical records can be performed by an unskilled temporary worker, a more highly-skilled employee is needed to actually file each of the scanned records into the file of the appropriate patient
Partial scanning of patient charts into the EMR system. Employees will pull all the charts that are due for the coming week or the next workday. Then they will scan only the clinical information that is pertinent to their upcoming appointment. The physicians will need to decide what they consider pertinent: last three visits, the first comprehensive exam, a problem list, past medical histories, medication list, latest lab results, etc. Then when the doctor sees that patient in the EMR system, he or she can view all of the relevant scanned paper records right then and there. This is what we had been doing until recently.
Scan every patient’s summary page into the EMR system. This is most useful if your practice has a lot of patients who are worked into your schedule or if you receive a lot of calls regarding patient questions or pharmacy refills. In this way, more patients start to have an electronic track record established sooner. Additional information can then be entered as they are seen in the office.
Hiring an outside firm to scan all your charts into the EMR system. Yes, there are companies that will come on-site and scan and organize all of your paper records. But although they will usually have a lot of experience doing this, there might still be much work on your part or your staff’s to ensure that the records are being filed appropriately. If your practice has decided that scanning all of the records is a must, this option may be the most cost-effective in the long run. Nevertheless, it will still probably cost you a pretty penny up front.
Don’t scan any old information into the EMR system. Start seeing all patients in the EMR system going forward and have the paper record pulled and available to the physicians for as many visits as they are comfortable with. New patients will need all of their information typed into the EMR system and established patients will need only their current visit entered (apart from their basic problem list, demographics, and medications for example). At some point, the doctors will no longer need to consult the paper chart and the umbilical cord can be cut. There may be exceptions to the no-scanning rule, such as important documents, labs, or imaging, and that’s okay. The goal is to minimize the amount of work spent on scanning information that is unlikely to be seen anyway.
OK, so going back to what we were doing: we were having the charts pulled beforehand, basic information scanned, last three visits scanned, last comprehensive exam, last couple of specialty exams (in our case, visual field tests and optic nerve imaging tests) as well as some other paperwork, and the chart was available to the doctor to view when the patient was seen.
When our CIO, Warren Brown, asked us whether or not we were looking at all of that scanned paperwork, our reply was, “No, because we can see it there in the paper chart.” As soon as we answered his question, we realized what a waste of time we were creating having our staff scan and file so much information that we were not even viewing in the EMR system. And although one could argue that this was not really wasted effort, we were creating a backlog of scanning and filing of more important, current information that we really needed to have scanned into the EMR system.
Now every practice is different, and what information needs to be converted into EMR may vary depending on your specialty. But hopefully this will get you thinking ahead of time so you can develop a proper plan to convert your paper records into digital ones in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible glostream
Can Buying a EHR System today, Cost you nothing in 2011? - October 9, 2010
President Obama Signs Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010
by Charlie McCrudden
Yesterday President Obama signed into law HR 5297, Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010.
The legislation took longer than expected on the pathway from bill to law. Introduced in the House in May of this year, HR 5297 was debated and passed in about one month and sent to the Senate for consideration. The Senate, bogged down in procedural motions spent most of the summer debating and amending the House passed version, finally passing its own version on September 16 by a vote of 61-38.
Instead of making changes to the Senate version, House leaders elected to approve the Senate version on September 23 and send it to President Obama for signature.
The new law includes two provisions that ACCA asked for when ACCA Government Relations Committee Chairman, Bobby Ring, testified on July 14, 2010, before the House Small Business Committee: a renewal of the bonus depreciation allowance and an extension of the increased Section 179 expensing amounts.
Among other things, the legislation contains 50% bonus depreciation for 2010 (retroactive to the beginning of the year) and substantial increases in Sec. 179 small business expensing levels for 2010 and 2011.
The new law also makes changes to the rules governing employer provided cell phones and other devices and eliminates the onerous recordkeeping requirements.
Below is a summary of the major provision in the new law.
TAX RELIEF
Increase of Section 179 Expensing and Expansion to Certain Real Property
Under current law, taxpayers may elect to write off the costs of certain tangible personal property that is purchased for use in the active conduct of a trade or business in the year of acquisition, in lieu of recovering these costs over time through depreciation. For the taxable year beginning in 2010, taxpayers may write off up to $250,000 of these capital expenditures subject to a phase-out once these capital expenditures exceed $800,000. This bill would increase the thresholds to $500,000 and $2,000,000 for the taxable years beginning in 2010 and 2011. At the end of 2011, the amounts would revert to $25,000 and $200,000, respectively.
Within the temporary higher thresholds, the bill would allow taxpayers to expense up to $250,000 of the cost of qualified leasehold improvement property, qualified restaurant property, and qualified retail improvement property. At the end of 2011, the amounts revert to $25,000 and $200,000, respectively.
Extension of Bonus Depreciation
Businesses are allowed to recover the cost of capital expenditures over time according to a depreciation schedule. Congress temporarily allowed businesses to recover the costs of certain capital expenditures made in 2008 and 2009 more quickly than under ordinary depreciation schedules by permitting those businesses to immediately write off 50% of the cost of depreciable property placed in service in those years. This bill extends the additional, first-year 50% depreciation for qualifying property purchased and placed in service in 2010.
Deductibility of Health Insurance for the Purposes of Calculating Self-Employment Tax
Under current law, business owners are not permitted to deduct the cost of health insurance for themselves and their family members for purposes of calculating self-employment tax. This provision would allow business owners to deduct the cost of health insurance incurred in 2010 for themselves and their family members in the calculation of their 2010 self-employment tax.
Modification of the Section 6707A Penalty
The bill revises section 6707A of the Internal Revenue Code to make the penalty for failing to disclose a reportable transaction proportionate to the underlying tax savings. The penalty for failure to disclose reportable transactions to the IRS would be set at 75% of the tax benefit received. Reportable transactions are defined as investments in transactions that the IRS has identified as listed tax shelters or that have characteristics of tax shelters, including large losses or confidentiality agreements. The minimum penalty under this bill is $10,000 for corporations and $5,000 for individuals and the maximum penalty is $200,000 for corporations and $100,000 for individuals.
Increased Deduction for Start-up Expenditures
Under current law, taxpayers may deduct up to $5,000 in trade or business start-up expenditures. The amount that a business may deduct is reduced by the amount by which start-up expenditures exceed $50,000. Start-up expenditures are defined as expenses paid or incurred in connection with investigating or creating an active trade or business, which would be deductible if paid or incurred in connection with the operation of an existing trade or business. For the taxable year beginning in 2010, the bill would temporarily increase the amount of start-up expenditures that may be deducted to $10,000, subject to a $60,000 phase-out threshold.
Cellular Phone Deductibility
The bill would remove cell phones and similar devices from the list of items that require taxpayer business purpose substantiation, so their cost can be deducted or depreciated like other business property, without onerous recordkeeping requirements.
Small Business Stock
Under a provision of the Internal Revenue Code (Section 1202), individuals may exclude 50% of the gain from the sale of certain small business stock acquired at original issue and held for more than five years. For stock acquired after February 17, 2009, and before January 1, 2011, the exclusion is increased to 75%. Qualifying small business stock is from a C corporation whose gross assets do not exceed $50 million (including the proceeds received from the issuance of the stock) and that meets a specific active business requirement. This bill would temporarily increase further the amount of the exclusion to 100% of the gain from the sale of qualifying small business stock that is acquired after the date of enactment in 2010 and held for more than five years.
Extension of General Business Credit Carry-Back to 5 Years
Under current law, a business’s unused general business credit may generally be carried back to offset taxes paid in the previous year, and the remaining amount may be carried forward for 20 years to offset future tax liabilities. This bill extends the one-year carry-back for general business credits to five years for those sole proprietorships, partnerships, and non-publicly traded corporations with $50 million or less in average annual gross receipts for the prior three years.
Allowability of General Business Credits Against AMT
Under the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), taxpayers may generally only claim allowable general business credits against their regular tax liability, and only to the extent that their regular tax liability exceeds their AMT liability. A few credits may be used to offset AMT liability, such as the credit for small business employee health insurance expense. This bill allows small businesses to use all types of general business credits against their AMT. This applies to general business credits for those sole proprietorships, partnerships, and non-publicly traded corporations with $50 million or less in average annual gross receipts for the prior three years.
S Corp Built-in Gains Tax
Generally, a C corporation converting to an S corporation must hold onto any appreciated assets for 10 years following its conversion or face a business-level tax imposed on the built-in gain at the highest corporate rate of 35%. This holding period is reduced where the seventh taxable year in the holding period preceded the taxable year beginning in 2009 or 2010. This bill temporarily shortens the holding period of assets subject to the built-in gains tax to five years if the fifth taxable year in the holding period precedes the taxable year beginning in 2011.
Special Rule for Long-Term Contract Accounting
The bill separates the bonus depreciation from allocation of contract costs under the percentage of completion accounting method rules for assets with a depreciable life of seven years or less in order to allow contractors that do not complete contracts within the same year in which they are entered into to benefit from bonus depreciation.
OFFSETS
Increase in Penalties for Failure to File Information Returns
The bill increases penalties for failure to timely file information returns to the IRS. The first-tier (i.e., not filed correctly within 30 days of due date) penalty is increased from $15 to $30, and the calendar year maximum is increased from $75,000 to $250,000. The second-tier (i.e., not filed correctly by August 1) penalty is increased from $30 to $60, and the calendar year maximum is increased from $150,000 to $500,000. The third-tier (i.e., not filed correctly after August 1) penalty is increased from $50 to $100, and the calendar year maximum is increased from $250,000 to $1.5 million. For small filers ($5 million or less in gross receipts), the calendar year maximum is increased from $25,000 to $75,000 for the first-tier penalty, from $50,000 to $200,000 for the second-tier penalty, and from $100,000 to $500,000 for the third-tier penalty. The minimum penalty for each failure due to intentional disregard is increased from $100 to $250. The penalty amounts are adjusted every five years for inflation. Penalties for failure to file information returns to payees are similarly increased.
Information Reporting for Rental Property Expense Payments
The bill requires persons receiving rental income from real property to file information returns to the IRS and to service providers reporting payments of $600 or more during the year for rental property expenses.
SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE
Small Business Lending Fund
The bill authorizes the creation of the Small Business Lending Fund to provide Treasury with the ability to purchase preferred stock and other debt instruments from eligible financial institutions with less than $10 billion in total assets. Eligible institutions include insured depositories, banks, and savings and loan holding companies, and certain community development loan funds. Eligible institutions with less than $1 billion in total assets can apply to receive investments of up to 5% of their risk-weighted assets. Eligible institutions between $1 billion and $10 billion in total assets can receive investments of up to3 percent of risk-weighted assets. Participating institutions will pay a 5% dividend rate on the preferred stock, but this rate can be reduced to as low as 1% if a bank demonstrates a 10% increase in small business lending relative to a baseline set using the four quarters prior to enactment. The dividend rate is increased to 7% after two years, if the bank does not increase its small business lending. To encourage timely repayment, the rate increases to 9% after four and a half years.
Increases in Small Business Administration (SBA) Loan Limits
The bill increases 7(a) loan limits from $2 million to $5 million, 504 loans from $1.5 million to $5.5 million, and microloans from $35,000 to $50,000. It also increases the government guarantee on 7(a) loan limits, while providing the elimination of borrower fees on 7(a) and 504 loans through December 31, 2010. It increases the 7(a) Express Loans from $300,000 to $1 million to increase working capital to small businesses. The package also includes an Intermediary Lending Pilot program, which allows the SBA to make direct loans to eligible nonprofit lending intermediaries, in turn allowing them to make loans to new or growing small businesses.
Extension of the Elimination of Small Business Administration (SBA) Loan Fees
The bill extends the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act small business lending program that eliminates the fees normally charged for loans through the SBA 7(a) and 504 loan programs and increases the government guarantees on 7(a) loans from 75% to 90 %. Since its creation, the program has supported over $26 billion in small business lending, which has helped to create or retain over 650,000 jobs.
State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI)
The bill provides $1.5 billion in grants to States to support small business lending programs. States will apply for the funds to be used for approved programs that leverage private lenders to extend greater credit to small businesses and manufacturers.
Small Business Export Promotion
The bill authorizes funds for the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) market access and trade enforcement activities targeted at helping small businesses increase market access and ensure a level playing field on which to sell their U.S.-made goods.
Enhanced Small Business Trade Opportunities
The bill improves the SBA’s trade and export finance programs and elevates the Office of International Trade within the SBA. It adds Export Finance Specialists to the SBA’s trade counseling programs. It also establishes the State Export Promotion Grant Program (STEP), which would increase the number of small businesses that export. The bill increases the activities and staffing of the Department of Commerce in carrying out its mission to promote U.S. exports. The bill authorizes increased funding for export grants available to industry associations and non-profit institutions. The bill requires that decisions to fund manufacturing and innovation grants include exporting potential as one of the application considerations.
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Improved Small Business Contracting
The bill removes the red tape and closes loopholes in the government contracting process. The bill also provides for a periodic review of small business size standards to ensure that size indicators are consistent with inflation and industry growth of small businesses. It establishes accountability of large business prime contractors for prompt payment to small business subcontractors.
Relief for Community Partners
The bill allows SBA to waive or reduce the non-federal share of its funding requirements for up to one year, through fiscal year 2012. It also gives relief to Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) and microloan intermediaries, which provide assistance to underserved communities to start and grow small businesses. The SBA estimates that the microloan program will create or save more than 10,000 jobs in Fiscal Year 2011. This legislation also provides an additional $50 million for the Small Business Development Centers to provide technical assistance to small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Enhancements to Small Business Contracting Parity Programs
This provision removes the priority that one contracting program has over another, making clear that no single restricted competition program has priority over another. It places the small business contracting programs, HUBZone, 8(a), Service-Disabled Veterans and Women-Owned Businesses on a level playing field when competing for Federal contracts.
Requirement for Federal Agencies to Expand Their Assessments of Economic Effects on Small Businesses
The bill strengthens the Regulatory Flexibility Act by requiring agencies to respond to the SBA Chief Counsel of Advocacy’s comments in the final rule. It also seeks more independence for the Office of Advocacy by mandating a separate line item in the SBA’s annual budget.
Can EHR Usage Lower Your Malpractice Rates? - October 9, 2010
Orlando Florida -- Depending upon whom you believe, the numbers are all over the place in terms of how much defensive medicine costs the healthcare industry and the country.
Defensive medicine costs total between $100 billion and $178 billion per year, according to Stuart Weinstein, MD, in an article in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. The cost rises dramatically when you include the cost of defending malpractice cases, compensation payouts and additional administrative costs. Weinstein put the tab that the average American family pays to cover the cost of defensive medicine at $1,700 to $2,000 annually.
A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine estimated the cost of defensive medicine to be $60 billion annually. Another estimate put the total between $650 billion to $850 billion spent on unnecessary medical care.
The solution proposed by many is tort reform - capping damages. At last week's iHT2 Summit Health IT Summit in Denver, Barry Chaiken, MD, CMO of DocsNetwork Ltd., and outgoing HIMSS chairman, said that the medical malpractice system is "broken." He suggested a malpractice system that is no fault and that empowers quality.
Here's another thought. It may be Holy Grail thinking today, but if we get to a critical mass of EHR adoption, the scenario could very well play out. By the time we get to critical mass, one hopes, that EHR systems have matured. If physicians use the clinical decision support in EHRs and employ evidence-based medicine, which are either already embedded in the EHR or can be loaded into the application, there's a good chance that patient safety would be enhanced and a higher quality of care would be provided. Say all physicians practiced medicine this way and best practices and reporting for quality and meaningful use were employed. If all healthcare providers followed national standard guidelines, malpractice caseloads would shrink, leaving us to deal with true malpractice cases.
For more information please call (877) 904-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Connect You to the Community"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money Âand lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Looking for the best electronic health record (EHR) software money can buy? Look no further. Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a best-in-class certified reseller for Allscripts MyWay. Allscripts MyWay is the leader in electronic health record/electronic medical record (EMR) software in the market today. Recently merged with Eclipsys, and formerly known as Misys, Allscripts MyWay provides everything your medical practice needs for electronic documentation, practice management (PM), electronic prescribing, drug utilization review and interaction, scheduling, maintaining patient demographics, insurance verification, physician quality reporting initiative (PQRI) tracking, billing and claims management, report and statement generation, and more all designed to meet meaningful use guidelines. Currently, CCHIT-certified, Allscripts MyWay is perfectly poised to provide everything you need for successfully performing EHR/EMR and electronic prescriptions (eRX).
Benefits of implementing EHR and PM solution are multifaceted. First, incorporating an EHR/PM solution enables you to provide better, quality of care to your patients. Connecting with other healthcare providers, pharmacies and laboratories, consulting with best-practice guidelines, following up on Health Maintenance Alerts, verifying drug utilization and interaction all promote optimal patient care. Second, successful utilization of an EHR/PM solution promotes operational efficiency and increases productivity. Third, effective execution of an EHR and PM solution enables your practice to demonstrate meaningful use and capitalize on stimulus monies set forth for electronic prescription and EHR use.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is connecting information technology (IT) and medical practice for improved patient care, enhanced efficiency and optimal clinical outcomes.
Faced with the challenge of providing higher quality healthcare, meeting meaningful use guidelines and containing rising costs with shrinking reimbursements, today’s medical providers have an advantage like never before”the integration of IT and medicine.
Designed for medical practices with 1 to 9 physicians, Allscripts MyWay (recently merged with Eclipsys, formerly Misys) delivers three critical attributes:
Simple“ intuitive, easy-to-use, and created to work the way you do, Allscripts MyWay software offers unique features like adaptive learning, customization-on-the-fly, and template-free charting
• Complete – an integrated electronic solution of scheduling, insurance verification, electronic documentation (EHR/EMR), electronic prescriptions (eRX), Health Maintenance Alerts, PQRI/E&M tracking, claims and practice management (PM) Affordable“ customized to fit your IT needs and operational budget
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced final rules for health care professionals to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for implementation and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR). Eligibility requirements include, but are not limited to:
Computerized physician order entry for at least 80 percent of all orders
Ability to electronically check for drug-drug, drug-allergy and drug-formulary interactions to make prescribing drugs safer
Maintaining a "problem list of current and active diagnoses" for patients
Use of electronic prescriptions at least 75 percent of the time
Listing of patient demographic data
Recording of vital signs
Electronic verification of insurance eligibility
Electronic filing of insurance claims
Ability to provide electronic copies of health records to patients
Ability to exchange clinical information with other providers in an electronic format
Ability to submit immunization data electronically
Based in Orlando, Florida, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions provides HIPAA-compliant services and Best-in-Class, Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) products for connecting (IT) and healthcare to create One Community United for Healing. glostream
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EHR Success Stories...Well Not Exactly - October 5, 2010
The best physician can make a mistake when writing a prescription, the best nurse can fail to remove a catheter on time, the most organized medical records staff can misplace a file, and even top hospitals have areas of waste and inefficiency. But electronic health records systems are supposed to make all that go away, right?
Well, not exactly.
Whatever you may hear from Washington policy-makers, EHR is not going to solve all of healthcare's quality and patient safety problems. HIM professionals at last week's meeting of the American Health Information Management Association in Orlando made that much clear.
In one session, aptly titled The Top Ten Urban Myths of an EHR, presenters Ann Meehan and Julia Kendrick, health information administrators at Ardent Health Services, a seven-hospital system based in Nashville, talked about their organization's journey to EHR—and the lessons they learned along the way about the futility of pursuing perfection.
In 2009, Health Services had a piecemeal approach to electronic access to medical records data in its acute care and rehabilitation facilities. Ard knew it needed to standardize information systems across acute care and rehabilitation facilities in its markets and recognized that having one system would improve patient care, processes, data reporting, flexibility, and information systems support. After months of planning and hard work, McKesson's STAR system was implemented, using Horizon Patient Folder to convert paper medical records to electronic.
But when the successful implementation ended, Meehan and Kendrick said, they began to uncover some myths about EHRs.
Here are five of the myths they encountered and what they discovered about them:
1.Broken HIM processes will be fixed: In fact, broken processes become more apparent in an electronic environment, where reports provide solid data relative to backlogs, timeliness, and ownership.
2.Chart reconciliation will be over: Nope—with the implementation of an EHR, chart reconciliation is even more important than in the paper world, where the lack of a record is physical evidence of the charts needed for processing, they said. In the electronic environment, varying percentages of charts are interfaced into the electronic health record. Without chart reconciliation, the speakers noted, you are “working in the dark.”
3.No more missing charts: This is simply not the case, Meehan and Kendrick said. Charts can be scanned to the wrong account number or the documentation may be split across many account numbers. Patient Access registration errors, interface issues, ancillary department errors or providers who do not want to “let go” of charts can also cause trouble.
4.No more paper: Very funny. Clinicians and providers still love paper and want it in hand. In a hybrid environment, dictated reports are printed and placed in binders on nursing units, despite the fact that the same reports are available electronically, they said.
5.Greater efficiency: Well, maybe. While an EHR provides significantly increased efficiencies, there are also some inherent inefficiencies. One information system does not meet all needs, regardless of how thoroughly evaluated or how extensive the client base.
The point of all this is not to say that EHRs are evil. In fact, the speakers agreed, they are necessary—for patient care, for sharing information internally and across the healthcare continuum in a timely and efficient manner, for expeditiously tracking and reporting quality indicators, for meeting regulatory requirements, and for timely billing and payment.
But to overlook the potential problems caused when you implement electronic health records is to miss an opportunity to use the system to its fullest advantage. It's important to share information among HIM, IT, and senior leadership, paying attention to problems and solutions. Only then can an organization really understand the power of the EHR, says Brian McCarthy CEO of Sencilo HealthIT Solutions and Allscripts certified partner.
For more information please call (877) 904-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Connect You to the Community"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money Âand lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Looking for the best electronic health record (EHR) software money can buy? Look no further. Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a best-in-class certified reseller for Allscripts MyWay. Allscripts MyWay is the leader in electronic health record/electronic medical record (EMR) software in the market today. Recently merged with Eclipsys, and formerly known as Misys, Allscripts MyWay provides everything your medical practice needs for electronic documentation, practice management (PM), electronic prescribing, drug utilization review and interaction, scheduling, maintaining patient demographics, insurance verification, physician quality reporting initiative (PQRI) tracking, billing and claims management, report and statement generation, and more all designed to meet meaningful use guidelines. Currently, CCHIT-certified, Allscripts MyWay is perfectly poised to provide everything you need for successfully performing EHR/EMR and electronic prescriptions (eRX).
Benefits of implementing EHR and PM solution are multifaceted. First, incorporating an EHR/PM solution enables you to provide better, quality of care to your patients. Connecting with other healthcare providers, pharmacies and laboratories, consulting with best-practice guidelines, following up on Health Maintenance Alerts, verifying drug utilization and interaction all promote optimal patient care. Second, successful utilization of an EHR/PM solution promotes operational efficiency and increases productivity. Third, effective execution of an EHR and PM solution enables your practice to demonstrate meaningful use and capitalize on stimulus monies set forth for electronic prescription and EHR use.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is connecting information technology (IT) and medical practice for improved patient care, enhanced efficiency and optimal clinical outcomes.
Faced with the challenge of providing higher quality healthcare, meeting meaningful use guidelines and containing rising costs with shrinking reimbursements, today’s medical providers have an advantage like never before”the integration of IT and medicine.
Designed for medical practices with 1 to 9 physicians, Allscripts MyWay (recently merged with Eclipsys, formerly Misys) delivers three critical attributes:
Simple“ intuitive, easy-to-use, and created to work the way you do, Allscripts MyWay software offers unique features like adaptive learning, customization-on-the-fly, and template-free charting
• Complete – an integrated electronic solution of scheduling, insurance verification, electronic documentation (EHR/EMR), electronic prescriptions (eRX), Health Maintenance Alerts, PQRI/E&M tracking, claims and practice management (PM) Affordable“ customized to fit your IT needs and operational budget
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced final rules for health care professionals to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for implementation and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR). Eligibility requirements include, but are not limited to:
Computerized physician order entry for at least 80 percent of all orders
Ability to electronically check for drug-drug, drug-allergy and drug-formulary interactions to make prescribing drugs safer
Maintaining a "problem list of current and active diagnoses" for patients
Use of electronic prescriptions at least 75 percent of the time
Listing of patient demographic data
Recording of vital signs
Electronic verification of insurance eligibility
Electronic filing of insurance claims
Ability to provide electronic copies of health records to patients
Ability to exchange clinical information with other providers in an electronic format
Ability to submit immunization data electronically
Based in Orlando, Florida, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions provides HIPAA-compliant services and Best-in-Class, Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) products for connecting (IT) and healthcare to create One Community United for Healing.
Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Ft. Lauderdale, Naples, Sarasota, Florida
Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Albany, Valdosta, Georgia
Montgomery, Birmigham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston, Spartensburg, Greenville, Innes, South Carolina
Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Richmond, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Tennessee
Frankfort, Louisville, Cinncinati, Kentucky
West Virginia
New, York, Albany, Rochester, New York
Newark, New Jersey
Maryland
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Vermont
Boston, Massachusetts
Augusta, Bangor, Portland, Maine
Cinncinati, Columbus, Ohio
Chicago, Illinois
Jackson, Mississippi
New Orleans
Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Ft. Worth, Waco, Texas
Arkansas
St. Louis, Missouri
Dover, Delaware
Rhode Island
CMS E-Prescribing (eRx) Checks Arrvied Last Week - October 4, 2010
CMS Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program
Update!
CMS distributes 2009 Electronic Prescribing Payments and Feedback Reports
October 4, 2010 Orlando Florida -- CMS has announced the distribution of 2009 Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program payments to eligible professionals who met the criteria for successful reporting. These payments are being processed and distributed by Carriers and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) and will conclude by Oct. 22, 2010.
CMS has instructed Medicare contractors to use a new indicator of LE, which will appear on the electronic remittance advice. Additionally the paper remittance advice will read “This is an eRx incentive payment.” In an effort to clarify the type of incentive payment issued, the LE indicator will be accompanied by the 4-digit code of RX09. If you have questions about the status of your eRx incentive payment (during the distribution timeframe), please contact your Provider Contact Center. The Contact Center Directory is available at http://www.cms.gov/MLNProducts/Downloads/CallCenterTollNumDirectory.zip on the CMS website.
Starting the second week of November, eRx feedback reports from 2009 will be available on the Physician and Other Health Care Professionals Quality Reporting Portal located at http://www.qualitynet.org/pqri. TIN-level reports on the Portal require an Individuals Authorized Access to CMS Computer Services (IACS) account. Participants may also contact their Carrier or MAC to request individual NPI-level reports via an alternate feedback report fulfillment process.
CMS Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program changes for 2010 include:
•Skilled nursing facility and home care are now eligible services
•Eligible professionals need only report 25 separate electronic prescribing events during the reporting period
•Eligible professionals will only report one G-code (G8553) that reflects at least one prescription created during the encounter was generated and transmitted electronically using a qualified electronic prescribing system.
•Data may be reported on the 2010 ePrescribing measure through claims, a qualified registry, or a qualified EHR product. CMS will post a list of qualified registries and qualified EHR vendors and products for the 2010 E-Prescribing Incentive Program on its Web site.
Group practice 2010 changes:
•Group practices (200 or more eligible professionals) must be selected to participate in the PQRI group practice reporting option.
•Group practices must report the 2010 ePrescribing measure at least 2,500 times during the reporting period to be considered a successful electronic prescriber.
•Group practices may choose to report the ePrescribing measure through claims, a qualified registry, or qualified EHR product.
•Group practices interested in participating in the 2010 PQRI through the group practice reporting option are required to submit a self-nomination letter to CMS, requesting to participate in the 2010 PQRI group practice reporting option. Instructions for submitting the self-nomination letter will be posted on the PQRI section of the CMS Web site by Nov. 15, 2009.
ePrescribing incentive program resources
This frequently asked questions (FAQ) flier will help providers determine their eligibility for the incentive program and learn more about the reporting requirements. Providers may also consult the following resources:
•Instructions to obtain PQRI feedback reports, MLN Matters, October 2009
•ePrescribing Incentive Program and PQRI coding and reporting principles, MLN Matters, September 2009
•Sample CMS-1500 claim form
•List of Medicare allowed frequency and charges by specialty from 2007
•presentations from the AMA House of Delegates Interim 2008 meeting: Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program and SureScripts-RxHub electronic prescribing overview
Find general information about e-prescribing in "A Clinician's Guide to Electronic Prescribing."
ePrescribing incentive program background
Starting in January 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began offering eligible providers incentive payments for using an electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) system to prescribe for Medicare patients. The CMS Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program was authorized by the “Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008; (MIPPA), which became law on July 15, 2008.
For 2009 and 2010, ePrescribing incentive amounts will be 2% of a provider's total estimated allowed charges for covered professional services during the reporting period (one calendar year). The incentive amount reduces to 1 percent in 2011 and 2012 and finally to 0.5 percent in 2013.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1995-2009 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
For more information please call (877) 904-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Connect You to the Community"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Looking for the best electronic health record (EHR) software money can buy? Look no further. Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a best-in-class certified reseller for Allscripts MyWay. Allscripts MyWay is the leader in electronic health record/electronic medical record (EMR) software in the market today. Recently merged with Eclipsys, and formerly known as Misys, Allscripts MyWay provides everything your medical practice needs for electronic documentation, practice management (PM), electronic prescribing, drug utilization review and interaction, scheduling, maintaining patient demographics, insurance verification, physician quality reporting initiative (PQRI) tracking, billing and claims management, report and statement generation, and more all designed to meet meaningful use guidelines. Currently, CCHIT-certified, Allscripts MyWay is perfectly poised to provide everything you need for successfully performing EHR/EMR and electronic prescriptions (eRX).
Benefits of implementing EHR and PM solution are multifaceted. First, incorporating an EHR/PM solution enables you to provide better, quality of care to your patients. Connecting with other healthcare providers, pharmacies and laboratories, consulting with best-practice guidelines, following up on Health Maintenance Alerts, verifying drug utilization and interaction all promote optimal patient care. Second, successful utilization of an EHR/PM solution promotes operational efficiency and increases productivity. Third, effective execution of an EHR and PM solution enables your practice to demonstrate meaningful use and capitalize on stimulus monies set forth for electronic prescription and EHR use.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is connecting information technology (IT) and medical practice for improved patient care, enhanced efficiency and optimal clinical outcomes.
Faced with the challenge of providing higher quality healthcare, meeting meaningful use guidelines and containing rising costs with shrinking reimbursements, today’s medical providers have an advantage like never before—the integration of IT and medicine.
Designed for medical practices with 1 to 9 physicians, Allscripts MyWay (recently merged with Eclipsys, formerly Misys) delivers three critical attributes:
• Simple – intuitive, easy-to-use, and created to work the way you do, Allscripts MyWay software offers unique features like adaptive learning, customization-on-the-fly, and template-free charting
• Complete – an integrated electronic solution of scheduling, insurance verification, electronic documentation (EHR/EMR), electronic prescriptions (eRX), Health Maintenance Alerts, PQRI/E&M tracking, claims and practice management (PM)
• Affordable – customized to fit your IT needs and operational budget
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced final rules for health care professionals to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for implementation and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR). Eligibility requirements include, but are not limited to:
• Computerized physician order entry for at least 80 percent of all orders
• Ability to electronically check for drug-drug, drug-allergy and drug-formulary interactions to make prescribing drugs safer
• Maintaining a "problem list of current and active diagnoses" for patients
• Use of electronic prescriptions at least 75 percent of the time
• Listing of patient demographic data
• Recording of vital signs
• Electronic verification of insurance eligibility
• Electronic filing of insurance claims
• Ability to provide electronic copies of health records to patients
• Ability to exchange clinical information with other providers in an electronic format
• Ability to submit immunization data electronically
Based in Orlando, Florida, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions provides HIPAA-compliant services and Best-in-Class, Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) products for connecting (IT) and healthcare to create One Community United for Healing.
Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Ft. Lauderdale, Naples, Sarasota, Florida
Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Albany, Valdosta, Georgia
Montgomery, Birmigham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston, Spartensburg, Greenville, Innes, South Carolina
Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Richmond, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Tennessee
Frankfort, Louisville, Cinncinati, Kentucky
West Virginia
New, York, Albany, Rochester, New York
Newark, New Jersey
Maryland
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Vermont
Boston, Massachusetts
Augusta, Bangor, Portland, Maine
Cinncinati, Columbus, Ohio
Chicago, Illinois
Jackson, Mississippi
New Orleans
Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Ft. Worth, Waco, Texas
Arkansas
St. Louis, Missouri
Dover, Delaware
Rhode Island
Nuances Dragon medical dictation goes enterprise allowing dictation within native EHRs - September 17, 2010
Orlando Florida -- Back at the HIMSS 2010 conference in Atlanta, Dr. Wodajo had the opportunity to check out Nuances Dragon Mobile Medical app suite for the iPhone. This collection of apps included support for medical dictation, medical search, and a catalog of recordings tied to individual patients.
These products were based on Nuances ambitious innovation in natural language processing. This app suite from the start included an SDK to allow other developers, particularly EMR developers, to integrate Nuances products into the native environments of their own software.
A recent press release from Nuance suggests this product is inching closer to large scale deployment across large practice groups and entire healthcare systems, potentially allowing physicians to soon dictate entire notes into an EMR using just their iPhone or Android mobile device.
Nuances Dragon Medical Enterprise Network Addition, according to the press release, adds numerous important features for large scale deployment. Included are better support for Citrix-based EHR environments, which many hospitals use to securely manage their EHRs across large facilities. As the press release states, this will allow physicians.
To switch seamlessly back-and-forth between dictation and typing as needed, play back dictation to hear what was recorded, correct medical notes via voice commands, and more. With this synchronized connection, Dragon Medical can replace the common and time-consuming EHR tasks that many physicians struggle to complete through sole use of the keyboard and mouse.
Additionally, this suite includes support for automated updates across an enterprise system as well as improved central management tools both critical to the IT team of any large practice or facility. I’m particularly a fan of automated updates. This way, when drugs like coumadin pass into medical history, their replacements will immediately pop up in the database.
As Dr. Wodajo pointed out when he initially reviewed the Dragon products six months ago,
The obvious advance for physicians will be use of Nuances SDK to integrate voice dictation dictation directly into EHR applications and thus make it seamless, rather than adding to the physician’s workflow. The vision is that a physician can simply dictate an encounter and, using natural language processing, the key parts of the note such as chief complaint, history, exam, etc. can be pulled out and used to populate structured data fields inside the EHR. Pretty ambitious.
I agree.
----------
For more information please call (877) 904-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Connect You to the Community"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Looking for the best electronic health record (EHR) software money can buy? Look no further. Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a best-in-class certified reseller for Allscripts MyWay. Allscripts MyWay is the leader in electronic health record/electronic medical record (EMR) software in the market today. Recently merged with Eclipsys, and formerly known as Misys, Allscripts MyWay provides everything your medical practice needs for electronic documentation, practice management (PM), electronic prescribing, drug utilization review and interaction, scheduling, maintaining patient demographics, insurance verification, physician quality reporting initiative (PQRI) tracking, billing and claims management, report and statement generation, and more all designed to meet meaningful use guidelines. Currently, CCHIT-certified, Allscripts MyWay is perfectly poised to provide everything you need for successfully performing EHR/EMR and electronic prescriptions (eRX).
Benefits of implementing EHR and PM solution are multifaceted. First, incorporating an EHR/PM solution enables you to provide better, quality of care to your patients. Connecting with other healthcare providers, pharmacies and laboratories, consulting with best-practice guidelines, following up on Health Maintenance Alerts, verifying drug utilization and interaction all promote optimal patient care. Second, successful utilization of an EHR/PM solution promotes operational efficiency and increases productivity. Third, effective execution of an EHR and PM solution enables your practice to demonstrate meaningful use and capitalize on stimulus monies set forth for electronic prescription and EHR use.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is connecting information technology (IT) and medical practice for improved patient care, enhanced efficiency and optimal clinical outcomes.
Faced with the challenge of providing higher quality healthcare, meeting meaningful use guidelines and containing rising costs with shrinking reimbursements, today’s medical providers have an advantage like never before—the integration of IT and medicine.
Designed for medical practices with 1 to 9 physicians, Allscripts MyWay (recently merged with Eclipsys, formerly Misys) delivers three critical attributes:
• Simple – intuitive, easy-to-use, and created to work the way you do, Allscripts MyWay software offers unique features like adaptive learning, customization-on-the-fly, and template-free charting
• Complete – an integrated electronic solution of scheduling, insurance verification, electronic documentation (EHR/EMR), electronic prescriptions (eRX), Health Maintenance Alerts, PQRI/E&M tracking, claims and practice management (PM)
• Affordable – customized to fit your IT needs and operational budget
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced final rules for health care professionals to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for implementation and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR). Eligibility requirements include, but are not limited to:
• Computerized physician order entry for at least 80 percent of all orders
• Ability to electronically check for drug-drug, drug-allergy and drug-formulary interactions to make prescribing drugs safer
• Maintaining a "problem list of current and active diagnoses" for patients
• Use of electronic prescriptions at least 75 percent of the time
• Listing of patient demographic data
• Recording of vital signs
• Electronic verification of insurance eligibility
• Electronic filing of insurance claims
• Ability to provide electronic copies of health records to patients
• Ability to exchange clinical information with other providers in an electronic format
• Ability to submit immunization data electronically
Based in Orlando, Florida, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions provides HIPAA-compliant services and Best-in-Class, Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) products for connecting (IT) and healthcare to create One Community United for Healing.
Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Ft. Lauderdale, Naples, Sarasota, Florida
Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Albany, Valdosta, Georgia
Montgomery, Birmigham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston, Spartensburg, Greenville, Innes, South Carolina
Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Richmond, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Tennessee
Frankfort, Louisville, Cinncinati, Kentucky
West Virginia
New, York, Albany, Rochester, New York
Newark, New Jersey
Maryland
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Vermont
Boston, Massachusetts
Augusta, Bangor, Portland, Maine
Cinncinati, Columbus, Ohio
Chicago, Illinois
Jackson, Mississippi
New Orleans
Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Ft. Worth, Waco, Texas
Arkansas
St. Louis, Missouri
Dover, Delaware
Rhode Island
Allscripts, Eclipsys complete merger - September 13, 2010
Orlando Florida --
The merger of Allscripts with Eclipsys will help connect 180,000 physicians, 1,500 hospitals and 10,000 post-acute organizations, making the new company better positioned to address the serious lack of information connectivity across healthcare.
“Our vision is to create a connected community of health to put the right information in the hands of all stakeholders at the right time, empowering them to deliver world-class outcomes, for both their patients and their organizations,” said Tullman.
By connecting physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals to vital, real-time information provided by its own and third-party systems, Allscripts also will have the unique ability to deliver a single patient record available at any time to providers across care settings. As a result, providers are empowered to make more informed care decisions, work as a more efficient care team, and deliver world-class outcomes.
“No company has a larger footprint in healthcare, crossing the entire spectrum of provider organizations from hospitals to physicians to nursing homes, home care agencies and other post-acute providers,” Tullman added. “Allscripts is making it easy for providers to collaborate. We think the result will be what we all want: better care delivered more cost effectively.”
“With the opportunity to qualify for ARRA funding just months away, we expect that more hospitals and physicians will look to Allscripts as the electronic health record company best able to connect them to the entire community of care,” said Phil Pead, chairman of the board of Allscripts, and the former CEO of Eclipsys. “There is a level of excitement from both the market and from our clients that we are now positioned to make the connected community of health a reality for providers and patients.”
----------
For more information please call (877) 904-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Looking for the best electronic health record (EHR) software money can buy? Look no further. Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a best-in-class certified reseller for Allscripts MyWay. Allscripts MyWay is the leader in electronic health record/electronic medical record (EMR) software in the market today. Recently merged with Eclipsys, and formerly known as Misys, Allscripts MyWay provides everything your medical practice needs for electronic documentation, practice management (PM), electronic prescribing, drug utilization review and interaction, scheduling, maintaining patient demographics, insurance verification, physician quality reporting initiative (PQRI) tracking, billing and claims management, report and statement generation, and more all designed to meet meaningful use guidelines. Currently, CCHIT-certified, Allscripts MyWay is perfectly poised to provide everything you need for successfully performing EHR/EMR and electronic prescriptions (eRX).
Benefits of implementing EHR and PM solution are multifaceted. First, incorporating an EHR/PM solution enables you to provide better, quality of care to your patients. Connecting with other healthcare providers, pharmacies and laboratories, consulting with best-practice guidelines, following up on Health Maintenance Alerts, verifying drug utilization and interaction all promote optimal patient care. Second, successful utilization of an EHR/PM solution promotes operational efficiency and increases productivity. Third, effective execution of an EHR and PM solution enables your practice to demonstrate meaningful use and capitalize on stimulus monies set forth for electronic prescription and EHR use.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is connecting information technology (IT) and medical practice for improved patient care, enhanced efficiency and optimal clinical outcomes.
Faced with the challenge of providing higher quality healthcare, meeting meaningful use guidelines and containing rising costs with shrinking reimbursements, today’s medical providers have an advantage like never before—the integration of IT and medicine.
Designed for medical practices with 1 to 9 physicians, Allscripts MyWay (recently merged with Eclipsys, formerly Misys) delivers three critical attributes:
• Simple – intuitive, easy-to-use, and created to work the way you do, Allscripts MyWay software offers unique features like adaptive learning, customization-on-the-fly, and template-free charting
• Complete – an integrated electronic solution of scheduling, insurance verification, electronic documentation (EHR/EMR), electronic prescriptions (eRX), Health Maintenance Alerts, PQRI/E&M tracking, claims and practice management (PM)
• Affordable – customized to fit your IT needs and operational budget
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced final rules for health care professionals to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for implementation and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR). Eligibility requirements include, but are not limited to:
• Computerized physician order entry for at least 80 percent of all orders
• Ability to electronically check for drug-drug, drug-allergy and drug-formulary interactions to make prescribing drugs safer
• Maintaining a "problem list of current and active diagnoses" for patients
• Use of electronic prescriptions at least 75 percent of the time
• Listing of patient demographic data
• Recording of vital signs
• Electronic verification of insurance eligibility
• Electronic filing of insurance claims
• Ability to provide electronic copies of health records to patients
• Ability to exchange clinical information with other providers in an electronic format
• Ability to submit immunization data electronically
Based in Orlando, Florida, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions provides HIPAA-compliant services and Best-in-Class, Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) products for connecting (IT) and healthcare to create One Community United for Healing.
Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Ft. Lauderdale, Naples, Sarasota, Florida
Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Albany, Valdosta, Georgia
Montgomery, Birmigham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston, Spartensburg, Greenville, Innes, South Carolina
Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Richmond, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Tennessee
Frankfort, Louisville, Cinncinati, Kentucky
West Virginia
New, York, Albany, Rochester, New York
Newark, New Jersey
Maryland
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Vermont
Boston, Massachusetts
Augusta, Bangor, Portland, Maine
Cinncinati, Columbus, Ohio
Chicago, Illinois
Jackson, Mississippi
New Orleans
Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Ft. Worth, Waco, Texas
Arkansas
St. Louis, Missouri
Dover, Delaware
Rhode Island
Allscripts, Eclipsys to merge in $1.3 billion deal - September 13, 2010
Orlando Florida -- June 09, 2010 | Mike Miliard, Managing CHICAGO – Allscripts, makers of electronic health records for physician practices will buy healthcare information technology company Eclipsys, which provides technology for hospitals and clinicians. The all-stock deal is valued at $1.3 billion.
Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman will serve as CEO of the combined company. Phil Pead, president and CEO of Eclipsys, will become chairman of the combined company and, on a full-time basis, will focus on key client and strategic relationships.
According to Allscripts, the merger will:
•Form one company with the industry's largest network of clients on one product platform, resulting in a single patient record
•Make for a combined client base that includes 180,000 physicians, 1,500 hospitals and 10,000 post-acute organizations
•Reduce Misys ownership in Allscripts through share buyback and secondary offering
•Be accretive to Allscripts non-GAAP earnings starting in calendar year 2011
"We are at the beginning of what we believe will be the single fastest transformation of any industry in U.S. history, and the combination of the Allscripts electronic health record portfolio in the physician office and leadership in the post-acute care market, with Eclipsys's market-leading hospital enterprise solution creates the one company uniquely positioned to execute on this significant opportunity," said Tullman.
The merger positions the combined company to help its clients more effectively access the approximately $30 billion in federal funding for hospital and physician adoption of EHRs provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), Tullman noted.
Driven in large part by the ARRA incentives, which begin in 2011, EHR adoption by physician practices is projected to grow from 12 percent to 90 percent by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office's March 2009 report. The CBO report also projects hospital adoption of acute-care EHRs will increase from 11 percent to 70 percent during the same time period.
"Our vision and the vision behind ARRA is to leverage information technology to create collaboration between providers in all care settings, helping to improve the quality and lower the cost of care," said Tullman.
"Both Eclipsys and Allscripts share a vision of a connected system of health in which critical information follows the patient and informs all providers that assist the patient across the complete care continuum," added Pead. "This merger will turn that vision into a reality. Healthcare isn't confined to the four walls of any single location, yet traditional healthcare IT companies deliver monolithic 'information silos' that fail to connect to other systems. Our approach is to instead focus on creating a single patient record connecting all applications used within an organization and across a community."
Both the Eclipsys Sunrise Enterprise and Performance Management solution for hospitals and the Allscripts portfolio of solutions for physician practices currently leverage common platforms, such as Microsoft.NET. This will accelerate delivery of an integrated hospital and physician practice offering. The companies also share an 'open architecture' approach, which simplifies connection to third-party apps across care settings, resulting in a single patient record.
"The combined company will be unique among healthcare IT companies not only in our ability to drive utilization, but also in our ability to quickly integrate our solutions and connect clinical information across every link in the healthcare chain," said Pead. "In combination with our powerful analytics and revenue cycle solutions, healthcare organizations will finally be able to realize the true promise of information technology, improving both clinical and financial outcomes across the entire community of care."
The merger agreement has been approved by the Boards of both Allscripts and Eclipsys. The Board of Directors of the combined company will initially consist of a combination of the current directors of Allscripts and Eclipsys.
The merger will be subject to stockholder approvals from both companies.
In addition, the transaction is subject to the completion of a secondary offering of Allscripts shares owned by UK-based Misys, currently the majority stockholder of Allscripts, and the completion of the Allscripts buyback from Misys of additional Allscripts shares owned by the company, which will substantially reduce Misys's share ownership of Allscripts prior to the closing of the merger.
The companies expect the merger to close in approximately four to six months. The combined company will have more than 5,500 employees.
----------
For more information please call (877) 904-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Looking for the best electronic health record (EHR) software money can buy? Look no further. Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a best-in-class certified reseller for Allscripts MyWay. Allscripts MyWay is the leader in electronic health record/electronic medical record (EMR) software in the market today. Recently merged with Eclipsys, and formerly known as Misys, Allscripts MyWay provides everything your medical practice needs for electronic documentation, practice management (PM), electronic prescribing, drug utilization review and interaction, scheduling, maintaining patient demographics, insurance verification, physician quality reporting initiative (PQRI) tracking, billing and claims management, report and statement generation, and more all designed to meet meaningful use guidelines. Currently, CCHIT-certified, Allscripts MyWay is perfectly poised to provide everything you need for successfully performing EHR/EMR and electronic prescriptions (eRX).
Benefits of implementing EHR and PM solution are multifaceted. First, incorporating an EHR/PM solution enables you to provide better, quality of care to your patients. Connecting with other healthcare providers, pharmacies and laboratories, consulting with best-practice guidelines, following up on Health Maintenance Alerts, verifying drug utilization and interaction all promote optimal patient care. Second, successful utilization of an EHR/PM solution promotes operational efficiency and increases productivity. Third, effective execution of an EHR and PM solution enables your practice to demonstrate meaningful use and capitalize on stimulus monies set forth for electronic prescription and EHR use.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is connecting information technology (IT) and medical practice for improved patient care, enhanced efficiency and optimal clinical outcomes.
Faced with the challenge of providing higher quality healthcare, meeting meaningful use guidelines and containing rising costs with shrinking reimbursements, today’s medical providers have an advantage like never before—the integration of IT and medicine.
Designed for medical practices with 1 to 9 physicians, Allscripts MyWay (recently merged with Eclipsys, formerly Misys) delivers three critical attributes:
• Simple – intuitive, easy-to-use, and created to work the way you do, Allscripts MyWay software offers unique features like adaptive learning, customization-on-the-fly, and template-free charting
• Complete – an integrated electronic solution of scheduling, insurance verification, electronic documentation (EHR/EMR), electronic prescriptions (eRX), Health Maintenance Alerts, PQRI/E&M tracking, claims and practice management (PM)
• Affordable – customized to fit your IT needs and operational budget
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced final rules for health care professionals to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for implementation and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR). Eligibility requirements include, but are not limited to:
• Computerized physician order entry for at least 80 percent of all orders
• Ability to electronically check for drug-drug, drug-allergy and drug-formulary interactions to make prescribing drugs safer
• Maintaining a "problem list of current and active diagnoses" for patients
• Use of electronic prescriptions at least 75 percent of the time
• Listing of patient demographic data
• Recording of vital signs
• Electronic verification of insurance eligibility
• Electronic filing of insurance claims
• Ability to provide electronic copies of health records to patients
• Ability to exchange clinical information with other providers in an electronic format
• Ability to submit immunization data electronically
Based in Orlando, Florida, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions provides HIPAA-compliant services and Best-in-Class, Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) products for connecting (IT) and healthcare to create One Community United for Healing.
Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Ft. Lauderdale, Naples, Sarasota, Florida
Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Albany, Valdosta, Georgia
Montgomery, Birmigham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston, Spartensburg, Greenville, Innes, South Carolina
Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Richmond, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Tennessee
Frankfort, Louisville, Cinncinati, Kentucky
West Virginia
New, York, Albany, Rochester, New York
Newark, New Jersey
Maryland
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Vermont
Boston, Massachusetts
Augusta, Bangor, Portland, Maine
Cinncinati, Columbus, Ohio
Chicago, Illinois
Jackson, Mississippi
New Orleans
Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Ft. Worth, Waco, Texas
Arkansas
St. Louis, Missouri
Dover, Delaware
Rhode Island
Welcome to the new Allscripts, formed by the merger of Allscripts and Eclipsys. - September 1, 2010
Orlando Florida -- Today marks a new beginning - you are now a part of the largest connected community in healthcare.
Welcome to the new Allscripts, formed by the merger of Allscripts and Eclipsys. By combining leading providers of software and information solutions in the ambulatory and acute markets, we have created one company with the industry's largest network of clients on the most advanced product platform which gives us the opportunity to create a single patient record.
Our commitment to you remains unchanged. Our goal is to accelerate everything we do and set new standards . . . for solutions, for software, and for the services we provide. We will be investing more than $140 million in research and development to accelerate our progress in innovation, in connectivity with all of the industry stakeholders (even our competitors) and in continuing to make our products more intuitive.
The new Allscripts will now incorporate the complete line of Eclipsys solutions, including acute, ambulatory, performance management solutions, and connectivity solutions. These offerings will come together on a single platform with the existing Allscripts portfolio of ambulatory, acute and post acute care solutions to form the most complete platform of HIT solutions in the market - and the most
connected community in healthcare today.
Within this broad community, we see Meaningful Use as a stepping stone toward an even more important objective - Meaningful Value. Meeting the minimum requirements of Meaningful Use is a start, but our focus is to ensure that our clients can get Meaningful Value out of their investment and leverage our solutions to deliver world-class clinical and financial outcomes.
The new Allscripts has the largest network of clients in the industry, with 180,000 physicians, 50,000 physician practices, 1,500 hospitals and 10,000 post acute care organizations. In partnership with you, our vision is to create a connected community of health. Today's announcement marks a significant step to help connect every link in the healthcare chain, delivering the information
healthcare providers want, when and where they need it to deliver improved patient outcomes.
I am excited to have the opportunity to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the new Allscripts and am pleased that Phil Pead, the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Eclipsys, will serve as Chairman of our Board and, on a full-time basis, will focus on key client and strategic relationships, product and process integration, strategy and the company's international business.
Kelley Schudy, Group Vice President, Allscripts Reseller Network, will work closely with Phil on the continued focus of Reseller and Alliance Partners like Sencilo HealthIT Solutions of Orlando Florida in our sales and service strategies.
I encourage you to go to www.allscripts.com or www.eclipsys.com to learn more about our vision, our solutions and our community.
Thank you for your confidence in us and for your continued support.
Welcome to the community. Welcome to the new Allscripts.
Glen Tullman
Chief Executive Officer
Allscripts
For more information please call (877) 904-4EHR or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com
Why Sencilo HealthIT Solutions
When it comes to your healthcare computing needs, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions's main objective is to provide a turnkey solution that can essentially sustain itself. When you choose Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you don't just gain a vendor who provides you with technology. You get a business partner who walks with you through every step of the process Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity
tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with
you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EMR EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Dell Fujitsu Data Domain, EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, HDS, IBM, Commvault, Xiotech and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, storage virtualization installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout the Southeast including Florida Georgia Alabama South North Carolina Texas Atlanta Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral Green Simpana Offerings Projects: BC DR planning Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup
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