Healthcare IT Update

EHR Compliance Issues to Keep an Eye Out For

Linuxerist & Burton Samograd EHRs can make your life easier, if your staff training is comprehensive. Your electronic health record (EHR) system may be helpful in filling in documents on your behalf — but make sure it isn’t filling in more than it should. As most practices are aware, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 offers annual bonuses to practices that show “meaningful use” of EHRs over a five year period starting in 2011. In 2015, practices that aren’t meaningful users will face penalties.

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Field-Tested E-Prescribe Training Tips

Ditch the pad. If you’ve ever called a friend to program your TIVO or help you rejigger your privacy settings on Facebook, you know that even the sharpest techies sometimes need a little help from their friends. That’s what scares some physician practices away from e-prescribing, despite the easy two-percent e-prescribe bonus available to them in 2010. When it comes to training, your physician practice peers may not be able to coach you on whether their e-script implementation went smoothly, since many ofthem haven’t yet taken the plunge. “It is estimated that only 12 percent of office-based prescribers currently use e-prescribing,” says Barbara Cobuzzi, president of CRN Healthcare Solutions. When the time comes to train your staff on how to use the e-prescribing system, your best bet is to gather everyone together.

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