Posts from February, 2011

Preparing for the Changes

Monday, February 28th, 2011

NATIONAL HEALTHCARE REFORM UNDER ACOS

WALTER KOPP, Senior Consultant.

Many hospitals are learning about the key provisions of National Healthcare Reform and how it will affect their hospital. Many are analyzing how they can participate in the Shared Savings Program offered by CMS to those providers that can reduce costs. This article summarizes the implications of developing an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and recommends where hospitals and medical communities should focus their efforts. (more…)

Entitlement Funds

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Medicare & Medi-Cal Incentive Payments for Health Information Technology

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) are allocating $46 billion towards EHR Adoption Incentives for hospitals, physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, FQHCs and RHCs. The caveat here is that providers must demonstrate “meaningful use” of a “certified EHR.” A “certified EHR” is a Health Information Technology (HIT) system that can capture demographic and clinical information about patients, enable physician order-entry and exchange health information with other providers or institutions. As CMS develops the concept of “meaningful use” of EHR, a broader explanation would include: (more…)