Meaningful Use: Avoiding Looming Penalties
Meaningful Use: Avoiding Looming Penalties
Hello. This is Jeffrey Berns, Editor-in-Chief of Medscape Nephrology. My topic for today is "meaningful use." I am highlighting this to encourage everyone out there to get expert information as they make decisions and plan for meaningful use.
We are shifting from a time when using electronic health records and e-prescribing and so forth were rewarded, to a time when not complying with these practices will incur penalties. It is important that everyone understand this very well.
I was in a meeting very recently, in a room full of people who were fairly knowledgeable about these sorts of things, and it was clear that many of those in the room, including me, had misunderstandings or misconceptions or had been given misinformation about some of the important issues related to meaningful use rules. For example, I was surprised to learn that there is a requirement for security risk analysis to make sure that all the policies, procedures, and activities are compliant with HIPAA privacy regulations. Of importance, it is recommended that these risk analyses be done annually because there are potential penalties for not conducting these sorts of analyses.
There have been lots of talks about the denominator in meaningful use being 50% or more. Some nephrologists run into issues because of dialysis visits. Previously, I was informed that dialysis unit visits that were performed by a nurse practitioner fall to the physician's billing denominator of the meaningful use 50% benchmark. Apparently that is not true, and only the visits the physician performs count in that denominator.
Other issues regarding meaningful use rules are related to unique patients vs patient visits. There is also an exception available to clinicians who are not able to use a meaningful use certified electronic health record -- in the dialysis unit, for example, when you may have no control over whether or not an electronic health record is available.
These are all important aspects of these regulations to learn about and understand. I have learned that practitioners can obtain insurance to protect an individual or the practicing group against fines and penalties under some circumstances, if they are audited and the practice is not quite in compliance.
My goal today is to encourage everyone to get expert information, ask questions, verify answers, and make sure you understand the rules and regulations regarding meaningful use in all of the various aspects of your clinical practice. This is Jeffrey Berns, Editor-in-Chief of Medscape Nephrology, and from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Hello. This is Jeffrey Berns, Editor-in-Chief of Medscape Nephrology. My topic for today is "meaningful use." I am highlighting this to encourage everyone out there to get expert information as they make decisions and plan for meaningful use.
We are shifting from a time when using electronic health records and e-prescribing and so forth were rewarded, to a time when not complying with these practices will incur penalties. It is important that everyone understand this very well.
I was in a meeting very recently, in a room full of people who were fairly knowledgeable about these sorts of things, and it was clear that many of those in the room, including me, had misunderstandings or misconceptions or had been given misinformation about some of the important issues related to meaningful use rules. For example, I was surprised to learn that there is a requirement for security risk analysis to make sure that all the policies, procedures, and activities are compliant with HIPAA privacy regulations. Of importance, it is recommended that these risk analyses be done annually because there are potential penalties for not conducting these sorts of analyses.
There have been lots of talks about the denominator in meaningful use being 50% or more. Some nephrologists run into issues because of dialysis visits. Previously, I was informed that dialysis unit visits that were performed by a nurse practitioner fall to the physician's billing denominator of the meaningful use 50% benchmark. Apparently that is not true, and only the visits the physician performs count in that denominator.
Other issues regarding meaningful use rules are related to unique patients vs patient visits. There is also an exception available to clinicians who are not able to use a meaningful use certified electronic health record -- in the dialysis unit, for example, when you may have no control over whether or not an electronic health record is available.
These are all important aspects of these regulations to learn about and understand. I have learned that practitioners can obtain insurance to protect an individual or the practicing group against fines and penalties under some circumstances, if they are audited and the practice is not quite in compliance.
My goal today is to encourage everyone to get expert information, ask questions, verify answers, and make sure you understand the rules and regulations regarding meaningful use in all of the various aspects of your clinical practice. This is Jeffrey Berns, Editor-in-Chief of Medscape Nephrology, and from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Source...