Posts tagged Florida
CMS Offers EMR Users Sizable Bonuses
Jun 11th
Your primary care practice could earn up to $290,000, over a five year period, if you adopt and actively use an EMR in coordination with the new Medicare Demonstration Project, which is designed to measure and showcase the quality care improvements that can result from the widespread use of interoperable EMRs/EHRs.
Since this program has generated significant interest, let’s take some time and review the basics. In today’s blog, we’ll talk about which EMR users are eligible to participate.
Location
As CMS announced yesterday, to participate, you must practice in one of the following areas:
- Alabama
- Delaware
- Jacksonville, FL (multi-county)
- Georgia
- Maine
- Louisiana
- Maryland/Washington, DC
- Oklahoma
- Pittsburgh, PA (multi-county)
- South Dakota (multi-state)
- Virginia
- Madison, WI (multi-county)
Specialty
To participate, you must be a primary care physician. For purposes of this program, CMS has defined “primary care” as being limited – with some exceptions – to family/general practice, internal medicine or geriatrics. Sorry OB/GYN and pediatric practices: For purposes of this program, CMS does not consider your providers to be offering “primary care” services.
Size
Only small to medium sized practices may participate. If your practice employs 21 or more physicians, you are, unfortunately, out of luck.
Patient Mix
To participate, you must demonstrate that at least 50 Medicare fee for service patients (Medicare as primary) use your practice for most primary care visits. When CMS refers to primary visits, it means visits relating to “the treatment of diabetes, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and preventive care services for patients with a range of chronic conditions.” As part of the program, you must report on 26 clinical quality measures that relate to these conditions. If you meet the basic requirements and have an interest in participating, you will have a chance to apply for participation during Fall 2008. Once the application details are released, I’ll provide an update in this blog.
Disclaimer: The information contained within the MTBC® Learning Center is provided for general educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The author of the Learning Center does not represent the Web site user or the individual submitting a particular question. Please seek the advice of legal counsel to address any specific questions you may have regarding your particular facts or circumstances
Florida Moves Closer to Requiring Healthcare Providers and Facilities to Provide Cost Estimates to Uninsured Patients
May 16th
The Florida House of Representatives’ Healthcare Council recently voted unanimously to recommend the approval of landmark legislation that would require healthcare providers to provide each uninsured patient with a good faith estimate of charges for non-emergency treatment. The “Health Care Consumer’s Right to Information Act”, if adopted, would impose a monetary fine upon any healthcare facility or provider that fails to provide a good faith estimate.
The House of Representative’s staff analysis explains that the bill would “amend the current rights of patients… by requiring all non-state healthcare providers and facilities to provide to each uninsured person, prior to the provision of planned, non-emergency services, a reasonable estimate of charges for such services and information regarding the provider’s or facility’s charity care policies for which the uninsured person may be eligible.”
In particular, the bill would require the following with respect to such healthcare encounter estimates:
- Upon request, a private licensed facility or provider must provide, an uninsured patient seeking planned, non-emergency care, with a written good faith estimate of anticipated healthcare charges.
- Estimates must be reasonable and provided in good faith.
- Estimates must be written in a language that is comprehensible to an ordinary layperson.
- Estimates must be provided within 7 business days of the date upon which an uninsured patient explains that he is uninsured and requests an estimate.
- Estimates may be based upon the average charges for the relevant diagnosis-related group or the average charges for the relevant procedure.
- Nothing in the bill precludes a provider or facility from charging a higher amount than the estimate, so long as the estimate was reasonable and provided in good faith.
- A provider’s or facility’s failure to render a timely estimate may result in a fine of $500 for each instance in which a provider or facility, as the case may be, fails to provide a timely estimate.
In addition, one version of the bill would require the State to publish information regarding the charges for the most common medical procedures on www.floridahealthfinder.com, an official State website.
Disclaimer: The information contained within the MTBC® Learning Center is provided for general educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The author of the Learning Center does not represent the Web site user or the individual submitting a particular question. Please seek the advice of legal counsel to address any specific questions you may have regarding your particular facts or circumstances
Technology as a Safeguard against Medical Malpractice Claims.
Dec 17th
A growing chorus of health care industry experts, physicians’ groups, politicians and medical malpractice insurance carriers are urging doctors to adopt new technologies to reduce the likelihood and costs associated with medical malpractice. Most of this focus has been on electronic prescribing, medical practice management software and electronic medical records.
Electronic Prescribing
Sloppily written prescriptions cause more than 7,000 deaths and 1.5 million injuries each year, according to a report issued last summer by the National Academy of Sciences. Many of these errors result from difficult to read abbreviations and dosage indications, imperceptible decimal points or misinterpretations of drug names (e.g., “heparin” as opposed to “hespan”).
Many states have recognized the importance of prescription legibility and have responded by revising prescription laws. For example, in 2003, Florida lawmakers passed legislation that explicitly states that every drug prescription “issued by a health care practitioner licensed by law to prescribe such drug must be legibly printed or typed so as to be capable of being understood by the pharmacist filling the prescription.” See, Florida Regulation Of Professions And Occupations Code Section 456.42.
In addition to eliminating mistakes caused by sloppiness, electronic prescribing technology (also known as a computerized physician order entry system or CPOE) typically includes a menu of medications from the formulary including a range of potential doses and the standard dose. Likewise, most CPOEs automatically check for drug-drug interactions and drug-allergy contradictions.
In spite of the legal, professional and commonsense rationales supporting electronic prescribing, the overwhelming majority of the estimated 3.3 billion prescriptions written each year are written by hand, rather than electronically; a reality that is mystifying to many of those in the industry who understand and have adopted electronic prescription technology.
For a very minimal cost, providers can acquire electronic prescription technology that simplifies the process of writing prescriptions. In fact, some vendors and health care partners offer this service at no additional charge and as a value added service to providers.
In view of the lifesaving importance of electronic prescription technology and its ability to inexpensively increase efficiency and decrease the possibility of medical malpractice claims, providers should give serious consideration to the electronic prescribing.
Practice Management Software
Many busy and successful practices do not appropriately calendar and track key information that is critical to the wellbeing of its patients. This administrative breakdown can cause a practice to become a contributing factor in a preventable tragedy when a specialist fails to provide the office with a report, the lab is slow in forwarding results or a patient fails to appear for a important visit. While the root cause of these calamities is the negligence of a third-party, an unwary physician may be culpable if he or she fails to detect the problem.
Some medical offices have successfully employed a comprehensive paper tracking system; however, the weaknesses inherent in a paper tracking system are obvious. Therefore, many other offices instead adopted simple technology (such as practice management software) can provide efficient office management assistance.
While the choice of a particular system is yours to make, it is very risky not to have any practice management and tracking system.
Electronic Medical Records
By now, most providers are quite familiar with electronic medical records software (often called “EMR” or “EHR”).
By all accounts, the use of an EMR can substantially increase efficiency, enhance patient care, reduce per capita healthcare spending and promote continuity of care.
A less frequently considered advantage of an EMR is its ability to safeguard a provider against malpractice claims. An EMR offers this advantage by systematizing and clarifying patient encounter notes, prompting providers to pursue certain lines of inquiry and creating a system of checks and balances.
EMRs offer significant benefits and safeguards to health care providers and every office should give serious consideration to the use of a quality EMR to reduce the risk of malpractice.
Disclaimer: The information contained within the MTBC® Learning Center is provided for general educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The author of the Learning Center does not represent the Web site user or the individual submitting a particular question. Please seek the advice of legal counsel to address any specific questions you may have regarding your particular facts or circumstances