August 4, 2009
EHR Stimulus Calculator – Medicare
Written by: John
I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone put together an EHR stimulus calculator and I finally found one here. The basic idea is you input your details and then it calculates how much EHR stimulus money you qualify (under the Medicare side of the stimulus money). I think that a calculator like this is important since the amount of EHR stimulus money you get depends on the amount of allowable Medicare charges.
Now, I’m not exactly sure how the calculator linked to above is calculating the Medicare allowable charges. You’ll see I left a comment asking this very question. Does anyone know of other EHR stimulus calculators like this one?
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6 responses to "EHR Stimulus Calculator – Medicare"
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I went to the calculator to give it a try, but it didn’t seem to do anything but list the maximum $44K reimbursement for the one doc practice I used… regardless of the other figures I used.
mjohnston,
I just tried it with some really low numbers and it calculated it fine for me. Looks like it does Average # Medicare Patients X Average submitted Allowable Medicare charges X Working days per year = Allowable charges for year.
I just wonder why they didn’t just have a field that says “Medicare Allowable Charges for Year” and then multiplied it by 75% and then use the chart to determine if they have enough qualifying charges: http://www.emrandhipaa.com/emr-and-hipaa/2009/07/08/arra-ehr-stimulus-payments-under-medicare/
I guess maybe they think it’s easier to estimate the average allowable Medicare charges for a patient?
Does the calculator account for the 30% loss in productivity that is essentially universal when a group adopts EMR? Most highly productive groups would be better off rejecting the stimulus, especially given the available crop of clickorrhea that passes for an EMR.
Sorry, I may have overstated the case a bit, but for many groups it would be a wash at best. Anyone know of any hard productivity data before and after EMR adoption? I have seen estimates from 10% drop in productivity to 40% drop. In the several hospitals I have worked in that have adopted an EMR, the productivity has dropped about 20%, and morale has tanked. In two cases that productivity never recovered, and no apparent benefits were realized in terms of error reduction.
I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of hard data. Just personal experience. Every implementation I’ve seen has taken the initial productivity hit. Training being a big part of that. However, almost all of the ones I’ve seen first hand and been part of have seen a productivity increase after implementing an EMR. I’ve heard the horror stories, but luckily never experienced any of them.
[...] my post about an EHR stimulus calculator on EMR and HIPAA, a user left an interesting comment that I thought might start some discussion: Does the calculator [...]