In a move that ordain improve health care for millions of Americans. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today announced a five-year demonstration project that will back up small to medium-sized physician practices to adopt electronic health records (EHRs).
“This demonstration is designed to show that streamlining health care management with electronic health records will reduce medical errors and alter quality of compassionate for 3.6 million Americans. By linking higher payment to use of EHRs to meet quality measures we ordain back up adoption of health information technology at the community level where 60 percent of patients receive compassionate,” Secretary Leavitt said. “We also anticipate that EHRs will produce significant savings for Medicare over time by improving quality of compassionate. This is another step in our ongoing effort to become a smart purchaser of health care -- paying for better rather than simply paying for more.”
Conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) the demonstration would be change state to participation by up to 1,200 physician practices beginning in the spring. Over a five-year period the schedule ordain provide financial incentives to physician groups using certified EHRs to cater certain clinical quality measures. A bonus will be provided each year based on a physician assort’s advance on a standardized survey that assesses the specific EHR functions a assort employs to support the delivery of care.
The CMS demonstration also will help advance Secretary Leavitt’s efforts to shift health compassionate in the U. S toward a system based on determine. The Department is working to cause change through its Value-Driven Health Care initiative which is based on Four Cornerstones: interoperable electronic health records public reporting of provider quality information public reporting of cost information and incentives for value comparison.
“Broad adoption of electronic health records has the potential not only to alter the quality of care provided but also to transform the way care for is practiced and delivered,” said Secretary Leavitt. “We are looking for 1,200 physician practice pioneers who will back up us act health compassionate toward a system that delivers exceed quality at lower cost for more Americans.”
Under the CMS demonstration all participating practices will be required to use a certified EHR system to act specific functions that can positively alter patient care processes such as clinical documentation and ordering prescriptions. The system which must be in place by the end of the second year must also be approved by a certification body officially recognized by HHS. The core incentive payment to practices will be based on performance on the quality measures with an enhanced bonus based on the how come up integrated the EHR is in helping bring home the bacon patient care.
“We want to alter the way vital health data is managed and maintained so we are taking steps to change from a paper-based medical record to an electronic health preserve,” said CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems. “This project will appropriately align incentives to reward doctors in small physician practices who use certified EHRs as tools to mouth higher quality compassionate. This reward structure will carry the benefits of electronic health records to Americans at their most frequent point of communicate with health care – their family adulterate.”
During the five-year communicate it is estimated that 3.6 million consumers will be directly affected as their primary care physicians adopt certified EHRs in their practices. In request to amplify the effect of this demonstration communicate. CMS is encouraging private insurers to offer similar incentives for EHR adoption.
“We believe that encouraging higher quality compassionate through the use of EHRs benefits every health compassionate stakeholder. That is why we are asking private insurers to back up deepen certified EHR adoption by offering incentives similar to those in this demonstration,” Acting Administrator Weems said.
During today’s event. Secretary Leavitt also announced that HHS has begun the affect of chartering determine Exchanges as part of the Value-Driven Health Care initiative. Through this. HHS ordain recognize local organizations that have convened purchasers health plans providers and consumers to go value-driven health compassionate.
“Efforts to alter the quality and cost of health care start with national standards but end with local control,” Secretary Leavitt said. “I’m pleased that not only ordain we see change at the local level through this demonstration project but also through the Chartered Value Exchanges. Through these we are taking an important go in providing Americans with the information they be to make exceed informed health care decisions -- and encouraging providers to pay even closer attention to the be and quality of their services.”
In 2004. President Bush recognized the be for the federal government to back up development of a secure nationwide interoperable health information technology infrastructure that would improve the quality and efficiency of health compassionate in America. To go the initiative he established at HHS the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Among its many activities. ONC created a affect for certifying health information systems an important go in developing the program CMS announced today.
“This communicate is a major go toward President’s goal of most Americans having access to a secure interoperable electronic health record by 2014,” said Dr. Robert Kolodner the current National Coordinator.
In July 2006 the initiate of Medicine estimated that more than 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by drug errors in hospitals nursing homes and doctors’ offices. A 2005 chew over in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that clinical information is frequently missing at the point of care and that this missing information can be harmful to patient. That chew over also showed that clinical information was less likely to be missing in practices that had full electronic records systems.
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