Roswell Goris Notes on Meaningful Use Incentive Payments

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for Medicare and Medicaid, a new rule was proposed at the end of 2009. The rule is called Meaningful Use. Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments will be offered under this rule physicians who are implementing an electronic medical record that is used to meet the requirements defined in this rule.

To reach the Meaningful Use criteria is beginning to look difficult if not impossible for practices that do not have the human resources or the IT expertise to ensure the electronic medical records are utilized according to the guidelines.

Roswell Goris says that practices, that want to apply for the incentive payments which can be substantial, will probably need to hire an external consulting firm to help them meet the criteria.

Many Medical Practices have purchased the necessary equipment and installed competent electronic medical records, but lack the IT expertise and support to use system to meet rules expectations as proposed. Using an electronic medical record does not automatically ensure qualification. Also the Meaningful Use proposed rule is not final. It's undergoing revisions. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, are still deciding on what has become a multimillion dollar question, what is Meaningful Use?

The idea is to improve the quality of patients' health through the continuum of care, more efficiency, coordination, fewer errors and in the future perhaps create a seamlessly electronic connection, where patients' medical records can be easily and securely shared with other health care providers with a click of a button.