Help with Meaningful Use in New York City

The tremendous challenge doctors face when implementing an EHR and reaching Meaningful Use can be daunting, however Regional Extension Centers are now established to help reaching the goal and demonstrating Meaningful Use.

The New York City Department of Health through the Primary Care Information Project who focuses on quality improvement and the Fund for Public Health established NYC REACH (Regional Electronic Adoption Centers for Health) as the regional center for New York City to help medical practices reach Meaningful Use. NYC REACH was created to assist Physicians with direct technical assistant and provide clarity and help implement each point of the 25 Meaningful Use criteria which can result on an incentive payment of $63,750 from Medicaid or Medicare.

Some of the questions physicians might need to clarify when trying to archive Meaningful Use can be,

• Who qualifies for the incentive fund?
• How to meet the federal criteria which is very high and seems impossible?
• How does reaching Meaningful Use impacts a patients health care or physician are just wasting time in front of a computer and spending less time with their patients?
• How do you prepare to apply for Meaningful Use?

It is surprising that NYC REACH it is not a free program. Medical practices have to further invest to be able to get assistance applying for these incentive funds through NYC REACH, with a member ship that will cost $600 dollars annually per providers and after the first ten providers it is free. You can visit their we site to see more information at http://www.nyreach.org/ and can also apply or email them for questions at pcip@health.nyc.gov
Here is a list of services NYC REACH offers to practices which can be very useful:

• Training & Workflow Redesign: these are ongoing classes and site visits to HER use, Billing, and Privacy & Security.
• Interoperability & HIE: Connections to health information exchange infrastructure, pharmacies, labs and other clinical settings.
• Meaningful Use: Explanations of the rules and practice assessment.
• Quality Improvement: How to use the advance quality features to improve care on site.