Last week, the White House and HHS announced roughly $1.2 billion in grants to help set up the framework for regional health information technology (HIT) networks. You and your peers will directly/indirectly use the networks to earn incentives for adopting electronic health records (or EHRs, subscribers can click here for more information). But, incentives of up to $44,000 per provider won't likely be available until at least 2011.
Prepare to earn those incentives today by keeping track of HHS's progress and monitor the agency website http://healthit.hhs.gov. You'll likely stumble upon committee reports and other items, such as proposed EHR quality measures for 2011. Here, you'll get an idea of where federal officials are heading and what requirements you will be asked to meet.
For example: Here are 10 quality measures under consideration (note some are very similar to Physician Quality Reporting Initative, or PQRI, measures):
- Percentage of hypertensive patients with blood pressure under control.
- Percentage of patients with complete lipid profile under control.
- Percentage of smokers offered smoking cessation counseling.
- Percentage of patients with recorded BMI.
- Percentage of patients over 50 with annual colorectal cancer screenings.
- Percentage of patients with current pneumovax.
- Percentage of patients who received flu vaccine.
- Percentage of lab results incorporated into EHR in coded format.
- Percentage of patients with access to personal health information electronically.
- Report 30-day readmission rate.