Comments on the draft description of “Meaningful Use” for Electronic Health Records are due by 5 pm (EST) June 26, 2009

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology released for comment a draft definition of “meaningful use” of electronic health records on June 16, 2009. Later this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will issue a proposed rule to clarify the definition, which hospitals and physicians must meet to be eligible for the more than $17 billion in health IT funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The preliminary definition calls for a timeline beginning in 2011 wherein meaningful use is linked to improving quality, safety, efficiency, care coordination, population and public health; reducing health disparities; engaging patients and their families; and ensuring adequate privacy and security protections for personal health information. “The proposed requirements for 2011 may be too aggressive for most providers to achieve. Comments are due by June 26 and your opinion could help change the final definition

RelayHealth Transition Information

Several physician offices enrolled in RelayHealth to improve clinical communication and accelerate care delivery. Initial implementation and licensing fees were assumed by Wellmont Health System. As of July 1, 2009 physician offices will be responsible for all fees associated with continued use of the RelayHealth product.

To see pricing and RelayHealth contact information please log in with your regular HPI username and password. Please click here to log in.

June 8, 2009 - Wall Street Journal Diabetes Articles

On June 8, 2009 The Wall Street Journal Published two interesting articles regarding Diabetes Treatments:

Diabetes Study Questions Expensive Treatments

NIH Finds Patients With Heart Disease Fare Equally Well Without Stents and Drugs Such as Avandia, Actos.
Aggressive use of expensive diabetes drugs and medical devices called stents did no better than cheaper treatments at preventing deaths, heart attacks or strokes in a large study of diabetics with heart disease.
The study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and several drugmakers.
For the full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124441644145192397.html


Study Ties Diabetes Drugs to Fractures
Two important diabetes drugs already associated with heightened heart-risk problems face new questions as studies show they may lead to bone fractures.
For the full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124441273201192297.html

Federal financial incentives for EHR

A physician practice may be able to recover some or all of its costs through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which will provide up to $44,000 per physician to practices that use qualifying EHRs.

In addition to incentives provided in the economic stimulus package, medical groups can take advantage of the Section 179 tax deduction, which covers computers and computer software purchased in 2009. Originally part of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 signed by President Bush, the ARRA extended the tax deduction to purchases made through the end of 2009.

Section 179 can change yearly without notice, so it benefits you to take advantage of this generous tax code while it's available. Section 179 offers small businesses a great opportunity to maximize their purchasing power. In addition, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and Recovery Act of 2009 has provided the small business owner with generous new (and higher) deduction limits. Most of the equipment your practice will purchase or lease qualifies for the deduction, so verify that your practice is leveraging the Section 179 Deduction this year.

For more information on Section 179 tax deduction click here.