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Archive for the ‘national Coordinator of Health Information Technology’ 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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HHS Announces Grants for Health IT Workforce

November 25th, 2009 |

Author: Richard Robbins

The National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within HHS today announces plans to make $80 Million available to support health IT workforce. These fund are available through programs with community colleges.

“Ensuring the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), information exchange among health care providers and public health authorities, and redesign of workflows within health care settings all depend on having a qualified pool of workers,” Dr. Blumenthal said. “The expansion of a highly skilled workforce developed through these programs will help health care providers and hospitals implement and maintain EHRs and use them to strengthen delivery of care.”

The press release added the ” programs will support the immediate need for skilled health information technology (health IT) professionals who will enable the broad adoption and use of health IT throughout the United States.”

When we are talking with potential Therap customers around the country – we often hear a concern that their staff may not be able to use computers or Therap. We have spent significant resources to make Therap user friendly and our experience is that DSP’s and other members of the workforce find Therap easy to use and a significant time improvement. However, we recognize that there is only so much that Therap or any one program can do to professionalize the workforce with regards to computers. Seeing funding for community college programs for health care IT programs will hopefully give additional comfort to agencies that their staff will have proper training.

Agencies might want to speak with their local community colleges about these and other HITECH grants. We are happy to work with agencies and community colleges that want to include training on Therap as part of their program.

Posted in national Coordinator of Health Information Technology |

Tags: community colleges, grants, HITECH, National Coordinator for Health Information Technologies |

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