Final Rules on Meaningful Use Announced
Today, CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid) and the ONC (Office of the National Coordinator for Health (IT) finally issued the final rules on Meaningful Use!
These final rules are the regulations that must be followed by eligible professionals during the first two years (2011 and 2012) of the incentive program.
St. Cloud Medical Group and Greenway Medical Technologies Partnership
St. Cloud Medical Group has signed on the dotted line to implement Greenway’s PrimeSuite 2011 electronic health record. This is a huge partnership for Greenway, who recently was selected one of New York’s Regional Extension Center’s preferred electronic health record vendor.
St. Cloud Medical Group serves over 300,000 patients in the state of Minnesota.
The medical group will implement Greenway’s combined integrated suite, PrimeSuite® (electronic health record and practice management solution), PrimePatient® (online portal) and PrimeMobile™(remote capabilities) in their medical group. St. Cloud offers primary care, urgent care, occupational health, surgical, pediatrics, pain management and OBGYN services.
St. Cloud Medical Group did their due diligence and researched to find a solution that would meet their goals, budget, and ease of use needs. They believe that the most important thing is to find a solution that the physicians WANT to use. They found that PrimeSuite had a user-friendly interface, can help prove meaningful use, and can be used throughout the medical group, regardless of the specialty.
To read the complete press release, click here.
Practice Fusion EHR is Rapidly Growing
Practice Fusion may be a ‘newer’ electronic medical record (EMR); however, many people already know about the company. The reason they know about Practice Fusion is because its EMR solution is FREE. Physicians are able to use the EMR system at no charge to the practice.
Free is not always good, but in Practice Fusion’s case it is. Practice Fusion announced this week that they have had a 72% growth in the first half of 2010. This means that they have more than 43,000 users.
Practice Fusion is considered the fastest growing EMR in the United States.
Temporary Certification Program Launch Next Week
Last week the ONC announces its final rule for the temporary certification program. Thursday, Just 1st , the ONC will launch this certification program.
This means that this program will become available for non-for-profit organizations to apply to become authorized testers and certifiers of electronic health records. The Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) will be one of the first organizations to apply.
It is expected that the testing and certifying of the EHRs will begin end of summer, beginning of fall.
The reason for this temporary certification is so providers will be able to qualify for meaningful use in 2011 and is to expire at the end of the year. Beginning January 1, 2011 the permanent certification will begin.