National and Local Health Care Leaders Meet to Improve Quality of Health Care
NEWS RELEASE
September 24, 2009Contact: Bob Johannessen, 225-248-7059
Louisiana Health Care Review Offers Health Information
Consulting Services
No cost service provided to physician practices
Baton Rouge – In several years, federal payments to doctors and other health care providers will be reduced unless electronic medical records and other computerized health information systems are put in place. Thus, doctors who receive Medicare and Medicaid payments will be penalized unless they soon enter the information age.
Today, Louisiana Health Care Review (LHCR) is announcing a program designed to help physicians adopt IT systems and electronic health records that meet the needs of their practices and that will satisfy federal requirements.
No Cost HIT Consulting
LHCR is offering health information technology consulting services to Louisiana physicians in small group practices that participate in Medicare or Medicaid. Provided at no charge, this service reflects LHCR’s continued commitment to improving the quality of health care in Louisiana through the widespread adoption of health information technology.
According to Gary Curtis, CEO of LHCR, the Baton Rouge-based non-profit company is able to provide this service at no cost for two reasons.
“As a non-profit organization, assisting physician practices is a key component of our missionand key to our business as a federally-designated quality improvement organization,” he said. “As the federal government makes more demands for the use of electronic health information, adoption of this technology will be crucial to future health care improvement activities that we will undertake.”
Curtis noted that health care reform efforts such as disease management, medical homes, and care coordination networks will all require physicians and other providers to share, track and report information.
“Electronic health information is the backbone of health care reform,” he said.
In addition to LHCR’s offer of no-cost consulting services, through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, the federal government is providing funding for physicians to purchase these electronic systems.
“If it has not started already, doctors will soon be deluged with calls from vendors trying to sell HIT systems. To address this confusion, our consultants are available to help doctors wade through the many products on the market, and then assist with the purchase decision that best meets their needs,” Curtis added.
The services provided by LHCR include education about federal funding opportunities and requirements, an assessment of the needs of each practice, assistance with selecting an appropriate electronic health record, developing an implementation plan and providing up-to-date information and education.
Dr. Ron Ritchey, LHCR medical director, said the federal government will provide extra reimbursements to physicians of up to $46,000 after they adopt HIT into their practices.
“Although there are different incentives for practices depending on the number of Medicare or Medicaid patients they serve, there are some common requirements that must be met to be eligible for the enhanced reimbursements,” he said.
These include the use of a certified EHR with e-Prescribing capability, that the EHR technology allows for the electronic exchange of patient health information between providers and that it allows for the electronic submission of reports on clinical quality measures.
LHCR has been involved in helping doctors adopt electronic medical records since 2006. Its earlier effort, Doctor’s Office Information Technology (DOQ-IT), was funded by CMS. Today, LHCR is the leading Louisiana company with knowledge of all components of certified health information systems. This includes an understanding of federal funding opportunities and prior success at helping physician offices through all stages of the transformation from paper to digital records.
“Over the past three years, we successfully assisted more than 100 primary care practices in Louisiana with EHR adoption at no cost to them. We are nowready to expand this effort to other doctors who are prepared to make this switch,” added Curtis.
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