You must meet meaningful use measures and report them to CMS – unless you’re participating in the Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, like Cambridge Pediatrics. The practice, which implemented an EHR system by eClinicalWorks, found that its five physicians were already meeting some measures. Check out a full-color screenshot of this meaningful use “dashboard," complete with analysis.

You don’t have to implement electronic health record (EHR) systems alone – how many physician practices have a computer expert, a hardware expert and an EHR expert ready to advise them? Very few, which is why the government set aside hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money to regional extension centers (RECs).

Your Medicare claims could be used to establish whether or not you deliver adequate care to your patients if CMS finalizes its June 8 proposed rule to allow your data to be extracted and used by qualified third parties. The rule aims to set requirements regarding how your Medicare data is used to measure your performance without violating patient privacy, CMS states.

The fastest-growing drug codes from 2008 to 2009 encompass a wide variety of clinical conditions, quite different from the type of growth seen from 2007 to 2008. While in both cases unspecified drugs outpace all others in terms of percentage increase in utilization, the newer data shows significant growth in drugs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and high blood pressure.

If a patient is presenting to the office for a visit with the physician and during the visit the physician determines the patient would benefit from the administration of two medications, such as Decadron and Rocephin, would it be appropriate to bill the E/M and the drug administration code twice?

While you and your peers may be getting extra time to claim new e-prescribing (e-Rx) exemptions to avoid losing 1% of your Medicare payments next year, as outlined by CMS in its May 26 proposed rule, experts warn you not to ignore the June 30 deadline. You would still face penalties if this rule is not finalized, which is why you should make every effort possible to meet that deadline, they say.

Nine-hour work days in a closet-sized office are standard issue for Susan Gateau, CMC, practice manager at Cambridge Pediatrics in Waldorf, Md. But 12-hour days that make the already cramped walls feel like they’re closing in on her have dominated this week, the practice’s first week using its new electronic health record (EHR) system. “It’s been rough,” Gateau admits. “We’ve all been on edge, and there’ve been a lot of glitches in the system.”

CMS has just handed out the first wave of incentive payments – worth $75 million – to physicians such as yours across the country who have adopted electronic health records (EHRs) and met meaningful use under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. Two of these successful doctors have tips and experience to share with you, in exclusive interviews with Part B News.

Managing denied claims effectively is necessary to keep your practice afloat. But you could be losing money that you are entitled to by not aggressively pursuing claims denials, experts tell Part B News. It’s easy to get inundated with other tasks and end up being buried in denied claims you think you don’t have time to sift through and appeal, says David Zetter, a consultant with Zetter Health Care in Mechanicsburg, Pa. But your financial losses can pile up quickly when if you are not diligent about reviewing and appealing denials when necessary, he warns.

Expect things to go wrong when you implement an electronic health record (EHR) system, according to your peers who have gone through the process. When they do, you need to know who to go to for timely assistance, especially once your providers have begun exclusively using the EHR to see patients. This chart lists actual problems and issues encountered by Cambridge Pediatrics as well as the organizations they contacted for help.