IMMUNIZATION EXEMPTION FOR MU

The Ohio Department of Health recently announced that it will temporarily exempt physicians from testing for Meaningful Use immunization reporting capability until further notice.

For public reporting purposes to achieve Meaningful Use of electronic health records, only hospitals currently can report electronic laboratory results for infectious diseases and syndromic surveillance data in Ohio.

The Ohio Department of Health is still accepting immunization data from physicians and hospitals that have been previously approved for their data connection.

For more information from the Ohio Department of Health, go to its website pages on HIT and Meaningful Use here or go to:

http://www.odh.ohio.gov/en/landing/medicalhomes/HIT/Meaningful%20Use.aspx

EHR INCENTIVE PAYMENTS HIT $179.9M

Ohio hospitals and physicians who use electronic health records are cashing in on their early technology efforts, receiving $179.9 million in Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program payments.

As of March 1, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid reported that Ohio's 2,109 eligible professionals and hospitals received $91,160,827 for their use of EHRs. Nationally, Ohio ranks sixth in the number of Medicare providers who received payments across the nation,following Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois and California.

Ohio ranks fifth in total Medicaid payouts, totalling $88,711,571 for 2,258 eligible professionals and hospitals that adopted, upgraded or implemented electronic health records, following Texas, Florida, Louisana and Pennsylvania.  

To look at specifics on these payments, go to our front page and click on the bright pink box on the right that says: $179.9M 

For more information on the EHR incentive program, go to our website under Regional Extension Centers. 

YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO REGISTER.

NETWORK WITH PHYSICIANS WHO'VE BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT... IN HIT!

Patient Care: Connecting the Dots

April 26, 2012   8 a.m.  4 p.m.

Ohio Union, The Ohio State University

Talk with physicians, vendors, practice managers and leaders in HIT, EHR and HIE at this education conference.

Click here to download registration. 

CLINISYNC DIRECT SUITE AT NO CHARGE

If you're interested in learning what services physicians now are receiving at no charge through our Direct Suite, go to our new web pages on CliniSync Physician Services. Here you will see what services doctors are receiving in communities whose hospitals now are participating in CliniSync.

SOUTHERN OHIO MEDICAL CENTER JOINS CLINISYNC

Southern Ohio Medical Center just joined the CliniSync HIE as one of 56 hospitals to commit to statewide health information exchange. Partnership staff had the opportunity to visit with them last month and present information.

Right now, there are 27 physicians' practices who want to connect to SOMC and each other via CliniSync. They include specialisty areas — such as gastroenterology, cardiovascular disease, pediatrics, orthopedics, psychiatry and more — who will be able to electronically exchange reports and referrals with family physicians, internists and one another. This is an exciting development for all of the physicians and staff in the SOMC area. Here are some comments from practice managers:

On Referral Management: "For patients that have, let's say cancer, their primary physician knows their diagnosis and can refer them right away. It's instant!"  Lani Wong 

If you're interested in learning more about the purpose behind our statewide health information exchange, listen to CIO/COO Fred Richards as he presents information to the staff there. As well, you can hear a brief conversation among practice managers who learned about the Referral Management module now being offered at no charge to physicians.

Video on CliniSync, Fred Richards

Video on Referral Management tool, practice managers

Michael Sawczyn

OHIO INVOLVED IN NATIONAL STANDARDS AND INTEROPERABILITY

S&I Framework to be finalized in October

Just as language barriers can cause a breakdown in communication between people, computers need a standard way to talk to each other to ensure that can correctly understand one another’s messages. In the healthcare arena, many standard “languages” have been in place for years. But in the brave new world of health information exchange, these standards aren’t quite enough to give a complete picture of a patient’s health.

That’s where the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework team steps in. Their job is to ensure that all computer systems responsible for sharing healthcare data speak the same language, and that the language they use is clear, concise and understandable to other computer systems.

Michael Sawczyn, The Partnership’s enterprise architect and security/privacy officer, has been working as a committed member with S&I since October 2011 in the Data Segmentation for Privacy workgroup.

It’s exciting work,” Sawczyn says, “and one of the most difficult computer programming problems I’ve had to deal with in a long time. But the end result will be safe and secure healthcare information, and to me that makes it worth the effort.”    READ MORE Here!

NEW ARCHIVES STUDY SAYS EHR USE REDUCES TESTS

A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine says physicians with access to a health information exchange (HIE) ordered less lab tests for patients whose electronic health record included prior test results than they did before having access to HIE. The results of this report contradict those of a previous study published in the journal Health Affairs early last month, which suggested that doctors who are able to view X-ray, MRI and CT scan test results on their computer are up to 70 percent more likely to order more tests.

To read the article on Meaningful Use Network, go here.