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December 31 2009
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ARRA Certified Incentives
Since the February 2009 enactment of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, medical providers have been working to become ARRA certified so they qualify for the generous incentives in the act. However the changes required for eligibility involve nontrivial expenses so providers must calculate the return on investment (ROI) and determine if the investment is worthwhile.
What are the Incentives?
The ARRA incentives have been designed to encourage medical providers to adopt EMR systems. The widespread adoption of interoperable EMRs will allow medical facilities ranging from small physician offices to major hospitals to run more efficiently and offer better patient care.
Medical providers who become ARRA certified are eligible for up to $44,000 in Medicare incentives and an as-yet-unspecified amount of Medicaid expenses. Experts estimate the Medicaid incentives could amount to as much as $64,000. Both incentives will be paid out over five years.
EMR carries other financial benefits. Doctors can typically see more patients in a day, reduce expenses such as transcription services and chart costs, and realize many other savings. It is up to the practice to estimate how much these savings will total.
How to Qualify?
To be considered ARRA certified for these incentives, providers must meet three requirements. They must be eligible professionals, must be using a certified EMR system, and must have achieved meaningful use.
The Medicare and Medicaid conditions for eligible professionals differ slightly. The biggest distinction is that the Medicare eligibility does not mandate the professional to see a certain percentage of Medicare patients. Medicaid, on the other hand, requires that eligible professionals have at least 10%-30%, depending on specialty and practice location, of their patient volume be Medicaid patients.
For both programs, certified EMR must include clinical health and demographic information for patients, must provide clinical decision support including physician order entry, and must be able to communicate with other EMR systems.
Meaningful use has not been determined but will likely include e-prescription capability, interoperability with other EMR systems, and the ability to submit information on quality of care to the government.
Are they Worth it?
In most cases, becoming ARRA certified and being eligible for the incentives has a strong positive ROI. The details will vary from provider to provide, but the benefits are generous enough to overcome the necessary costs.
Each provider will need to calculate their own ROI. They should work with accounting professionals to estimate the cost of not only the EMR purchase but other associated expenses. For example during the learning curve, some physician offices have to cut back on patient load to continue to provide good service knowing that once they are familiar with the system they can treat a larger patient volume than before.
Once expenses and benefits have been estimated, an ROI can be calculated and the provider can determine if it is worth becoming ARRA certified.
About the Author:
Christine Harrell writes about a variety of topics. If you would like to learn more about being [url=“http://www.freedommd.com”]arra
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