Healthcare IT Update

By now we’ve all heard that hospitals that meet ARRA’s criteria get to collect incentives starting at $2 million. The government will then adjust that figure based on your hospital’s Medicare discharges and the year that you make the EHR transition.

Buy-and-install or Internet based? Jim Sheldon-Dean shows you how to make the right EHR decision for your health care organization.

Just how much will your facility get? That can be a head scratcher. Calculate your anticipated share of funding with this breakdown of the Medicare incentive formula.

Formula: For acute care prospective payment system (PPS) hospitals the formula is:

• Initial Amount times Medicare Share times Transition Factor = Total Incentive Amount

The “Initial Amount” is $2 million plus $200 for each discharge between the 1,150th and 23,000^thdischarge in a 12-month period. There is no credit for the first 1,149 discharges or discharges…