Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that – even at this late date – many chiropractic & medical physicians are still unfamiliar with the government incentive program for Meaningful Use. So, here’s a very brief overview of the highlights:
- If you treat Medicare patients in your practice, over the next several years, the government will reimburse you more than usual… up to $44,000 per provider over the entire period. The project will proceed in three stages that have progressively more stringent requirements. We’re currently in Stage I – which has the most relaxed participation requirements.
- What’s the goal? As part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the federal government wants to improve the efficiency of the health care system. Years ago, CMS (then HCFA) began offering incentives to doctors who submitted claims electronically. Now, the goal is to make sure you can share addtional information electronically with CMS (e.g. quality reporting), your patients (e.g. their health records), and public agencies such as the CDC (e.g. immunization data). All these changes are expected to make patient care more efficient & effective.
- In order to qualify for the incentive payments – which are based on the total Medicare or Medicaid fees you charge during the year – you must have certified software. As an ECLIPSE user, you’ve already met the first qualification. The second qualification is up to you. You must meet a series of criteria in your office, which you can read about in detail here. Most criteria are relatively easy to meet via small adjustments to your office procedures.
- It’s likely that you send electronic claims now. Years ago, electronic claims were
the exception rather than the rule. The current incentives are the government’s
way of encouraging across-the-board adoption of systems that can share information over the shortest possible time span. - In a few years, CMS will begin to phase in penalties for providers who haven’t yet adopted certified technology.
- For more information, visit the related CMS site.
- Finally as of this date (9/14/2011), we know of at least one office in UT that has notified us as follows via email. Here are two excerpts: “… The initial process of getting required information entered is time consuming but Eclipse’s quick data entry options speed the process up. Not only have we attested but we have passed the attestation which means for us the check is the in the mail …” and “… So, for those who doubt, doubt no more. We used Eclipse, we qualified for meaningful use, we where able to run reports for the clinical quality measures, we attested, we passed and now we are waiting for payment…”
- Update: As of December 2011, myriad ECLIPSE users have already received payments of $18,000. For instance, according to Sylvester Chiropractic Centre in NJ: “… our office attested to CMS for Meaningful use on October 19, 2011 and received the full $18,000 on November 30, 2011. It was quick and easy. And best of all, we received our payment during the first year of availability because ECLIPSE was certified before all the initial deadlines.”