Health Disparities to be Tackled in Meaningful Use Stage 3

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While EHR companies are working to meet Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 criteria, industry leaders have been collaborating to develop MU Stage 3 requirements.  Last week, the Consumer Partnership for eHealth published an action plan, Leveraging Meaningful Use to Reduce Health Disparities Plan, to leverage MU Stage 3 requirements to reduce health disparities.

According to Healthcare IT News, the proposed action plan:

1. Recommends that EHRs have the ability to stratify patients’ specific conditions by variables such as race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status and disability status.
2. Calls for greater use of patient data collected and shared through devices such as smartphones.
3. Emphasizes the need to ensure that electronic health information is effectively communicated to patients, so they are better able to utilize its benefits.

The goal is to address health disparities as part of Stage 3 requirements resulting in improved health outcomes and measurement nationwide.  Notable statistics surrounding disparities highlighted in the action plan include:

• 58 million people ages five and older speak a language other than English at home
• 56 million people live with a disability
• Women account for 50.8 percent of the population
• The U.S. Hispanic population reached 50.5 million, increasing 43 percent from the year 2000 and accounting for over half of the total population increase in the U.S.

e-Prescribing State By State – Texas

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Featured e-Prescribing State: Texas

Office Based Physicians e-Prescribing in Texas

Interested in another state’s e-Prescribing statistics? Just Contact DoseSpot.

Source: Surescripts State Progress Reports

Meaningful Use: Stage 1 vs. Stage 2

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With Stage 2 right around the corner many EHRs, physicians, dentists, and other ‘eligible professionals’ are seeking guidance. So here it is! Today’s blog post features a Stage 1 vs. Stage 2 Comparison Table for 3 Meaningful Use Core Objectives.

More comparisons are coming…stay tuned!

….Congrats to last week’s DoseSpot #TuesdayTweetup winner @jasmith1437 and runner up @techydoc.

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Stage 1 Objective: CPOE

Use CPOE for medication orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines

Stage 1 Measure: CPOE

More than 30% of unique patients with at least one medication in their medication list seen by the EP have at least one medication order entered using CPOE

Stage 2 Objective: CPOE

Use computerized provider order entry (CPOE) for medication, laboratory and radiology orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines

Stage 2 Measure: CPOE

More than 60% of medication, 30% of laboratory, and 30% of radiology orders created by the EP during the EHR reporting period are recorded using CPOE

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Stage 1 Objective: e-Prescribing

Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)

Stage 1 Measure: e-Prescribing

More than 30% of unique patients with at least one medication in their medication list seen by the EP have at least one medication order entered using CPOE

Stage 2 Objective: e-Prescribing

Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)

Stage 2 Measure: e-Prescribing

More than 50% of all permissible prescriptions written by the EP are compared to at least one drug formulary and transmitted electronically using Certified EHR Technology

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Stage 1 Objective: Record Demographics

Record demographics: Preferred language, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Date of birth

Stage 1 Measure: Record Demographics

More than 50% of all unique patients seen by the EP have demographics recorded as structured data

Stage 2 Objective: Record Demographics

Record demographics: Preferred language, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Date of birth

Stage 2 Measure: Record Demographics

More than 80% of all unique patients seen by the EP have demographics recorded as structured data

Source: http://go.cms.gov/12r3Gsc

Meaningful Use Reading Glasses

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Get those reading glasses on…Meaningful Use Stage 2 released!

Below are some resources to jumpstart your research:

Executive Summary by HIMSS

 ONC Fact Sheet by ONC for HIT

 Final Rule by HHS

 6 Highlights from CMS’ Final Stage 2 Meaningful Use Rule by Becker’s Hospital Review

Meaningful Use Stage 2 Rules Finalized by InformationWeek

 At a glance: Stage 2 Final Rule by Healthcare IT News

 ICSA Labs Free MU2 Webinars by ICSA Labs

Enjoy!

E-prescribing promises quick ROI, lower medication costs

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One of the barriers in the swift adoption of electronic prescribing is the high switching cost associated with migrating from paper to e-format, but several studies have shown the investment is worth the potential savings in the future.

A study based on e-prescribing in Massachusetts found that doctors who used e-prescribing systems could save $0.70 per patient per month, which translates to $845,000 annually per 100,000 insured patients filling prescriptions.

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Incentive payments for e-prescribers

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In its bid to entice more providers to shift to electronic prescribing, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has started this year incentive payments of up to 2 percent to physicians and other eligible professionals who use the technology

For 2009, to be a “successful e-prescriber,” eligible professionals must report the e-prescribing quality measure through their Medicare Part B claims on at least 50 percent of applicable cases during the reporting year.

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