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Archive for the ‘health information exchange’ Category

Final Meaningful Use Rules from HHS and ONC

July 16th, 2010 |

A common question we get at conferences and discussions is whether developmental disability providers qualify for the bonuses from meaningful use.

The Office of the National Coordinator just published their final meaningful use rules. You can link to a copy of the 800+ page document here.

Their website states

How HHS and ONC Can Help

Through the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is providing incentive payments to eligible health care professionals and hospitals who adopt certified EHR technology and achieve meaningful use.

Through Standards and Certification efforts, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is offering guidance on standards to support interoperability of health information and the required capabilities and related standards and implementation specifications that certified EHR technology will need to include to, at a minimum, support the achievement of meaningful use and qualify for payments under the CMS EHR incentive programs.

Through the Regional Extension Center Program, ONC is offering technical assistance, guidance, and information on best practices to support and accelerate providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of certified EHR technology.

Through the State Health Information Exchange Program and Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) activities, ONC is providing tools, funding and support for building health information exchange capacity.

Through the Beacon Communities Program, ONC is identifying and sharing best practices for using electronic health records to achieve improvements in health and health care.

My understanding is that at present the incentives and bonuses are geared to hospitals, doctors and health information exchanges.

I have talked with many people, including staff from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Techology, at conferences such as HIMSS. My understanding is that there are no bonuses or payments based on nurses. So providers of service to people with developmental disability who employ many nurses and have individuals with significant medical issues would not be eligible for any of these incentives.

We are looking through the guidelines and having discussions on how agencies which employ doctors directly could be eligible.

We are also working and speaking with organizations such as health information exchanges and hospitals to see how data on Therap can be available at appropriate times (such as emergency rooms at hospitals or visits to new doctors).

Posted in health information exchange, national Coordinator of Health Information Technology, Uncategorized |

Tags: health information exchange, HIMSS, meaningful use, office of the national coordinator |

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Therap Attended HL7 Conference

January 23rd, 2010 |

Author: Richard Robbins

We are working on various interfaces with Health Information Exchanges. Our first pilot will be with Hartford Hospital and the Connecticut E Health Initiative. We are in discussions with HIE’s in other states.

Sazzad, Asif and Masum recently attended an HL7 conference in Arizona. There are an interesting series of blog posts on the customer support blog.

There are also will be a series of sessions at the provider administrator conference on HL7, HIE’s and interfacing with hospitals.

Posted in health information exchange |

Tags: Hartford Hospital, health information exchange, HL7 |

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Hartford Hopsital and SMC Partners to talk about Connecticut Health Information Exchange

December 4th, 2009 |

Author: Richard Robbins

We are excited to have Sheila Gschwind from SMC Partners and John DeStefano from Hartford Hospital presenting as part of our Digital Health portion of the Therap National Provider Administrator Conference February 2-4, 2010.

They will be talking about a number of topics including the Connecticut E-Health Initiative which includes a Health Information Exchange using HL7 protocols. They will discuss the pilot project which includes Therap customers.

Hartford Hospital’s website states it is

central Connecticut’s leading tertiary medical center with a world class medical staff, supported by over 7,000 extraordinary nurses and staff members.

The history of Hartford Hospital is long and illustrious. Founded in 1854, it was the first hospital to be built in Hartford. An industrial explosion that killed or injured many people spurred the community to build the area’s first hospital, and from those early beginnings has grown the leading medical center in Hartford and one of the finest hospitals in New England.

Hartford Hospital is the major teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Connecticut Medical School, serving the New England region. Our reputation for providing complex and innovative care to those in need Click to view at full size is built on the foundation of excellence in patient care, teaching and research.

SMC Partners Projects Include

Project management for Connecticut’s Regional Health Information Organization. eHealthConnecticut is a not for profit entity incorporated to create, champion and sustain a secure statewide health information exchange that will dramatically improve the safety, efficiency and quality of health care in Connecticut. Leaders representing physicians, providers, purchasers, payers, academia, quality organizations, government and other stakeholders established the organization as a collaborative approach to meeting the challenges of Health Information Technology adoption and interoperability across Connecticut

» Program and project management, process design and client implementations for nationwide
subspecialty teleradiology company
» Assessment of information management systems and processes for a large multi-specialty
physician group, including lab and radiology ancillary services

»	Designed, implemented and supported a web-based patient activity tracking system that enhances patient service and provides quality and outcomes measurements for a regional breast care program

» Project management services to assist with a Federal demonstration contract for
transformation of clinical guidelines into XML format for integration with ambulatory
EHR systems

Stay tuned for more information on other speakers and sessions at the Therap National Provider Administrator Conference.

Posted in health information exchange, Therap Conferences, Uncategorized |

Tags: Hartford Hospital, health information exchange, provider administrator conference, SMC Partners |

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