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Meaningful Use Final Rule Published

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This morning HHS held a live webcast (I guess it’s a news conference?) announcing the final meaningful use rule. Unfortunately, it was a little early for me on the west coast (the life of a blogger), but I caught the second half of the webcast.

Seems like they have made some changes to the meaningful use program. The most notable I think are the drop in percentage of ePrescriptions that are required (now at 40% I believe) and the mandatory and ala carte meaningful use requirements.

I’m really interested to look into how they’ve implemented the second option. I believe this is how they’re trying to deal with the problems of meaningful use and specialties. So, hopefully the mandatory meaningful use requirements will be those that apply to ALL specialties and then the ala carte items can be customized to each specialties needs.

I’m sure I’m missing some other notable details. I’ll do what I can over the next week to look over the documents and the other meaningful use coverage on the web to bring you more analysis on the announcement.

In the mean time, it looks like CMS has published a website on the EHR incentive programs. They even have this page on Meaningful Use which includes the download of the Meaningful Use final rule.

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July 13, 2010 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  Meaningful Use
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Looking Back: Meaningful Use Consultant Lies, EMR Conversions, EMR Backlog and Sunday Funnies

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This weekend I decided to look back at some random posts. Yes, call it my deep dive into the over 800 different EMR blog posts I’ve done on EMR and HIPAA. No sense in good quality posts not being seen.

Lies from Meaningful Use Consultants – Yes, the title is a bit sensational, but I was (and still am) aghast at the amount of misinformation (and lies) that are out there misleading the unsuspecting. Expect this to increase in 2011 as the EMR stimulus money starts rolling out. I’d love to post the first picture of someone getting their EMR stimulus check. Too bad it will be part of their Medicare reimbursement. Word of Caution: Be Careful with what you hear!

Converting Data from Old EMR to New EMR – I loved this email. The way he describes the difficult process of converting data from an old EMR to a new one is spot on. I expect in about 5 years, we’re going to have thousands of more stories like this one.

Plus, the comments on the cultural change of switching EMR software is beautiful to read also. This is something that Allscripts and Eclipsys EMR users are going to have to think about after Allscripts acquisition of Eclipsys.

EMR Backlog – I can’t believe I haven’t written about this for a while. It was such a hot topic back when I wrote this post in August of 2009. It’s still in the back of people’s minds. However, so far I haven’t seen any real major EMR backlog. Have you? We’ll see if that changes once the final Meaningful Use rule is out. Or maybe the checks need to start rolling in first. Either way, I’m not too worried. I think a backlog would be a good thing.

Kathleen Sebelius on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – Just a little something to make you laugh. I should post more things like this. Maybe Saturday will become the Saturday Funnies. If you have healthcare or technology related jokes let me know on my Contact Us page. I’d love to publish them.

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July 11, 2010 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Consultant  Meaningful Use
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Kathleen Sebelius on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

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On the weekend I try and go a little big lighter since not as many people read on the weekend. This weekend I decided to go really light and post a couple video clips of Kathleen Sebelius’ appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Kathleen Sebelius Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Kathleen Sebelius Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com

Thanks to Neil Versel for pointing out this videos. Have a great weekend.

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August 15, 2009 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: Personal Musings
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Delays in EHR Stimulus Time Frame

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About a month ago I read an interesting post by Will Weider, CIO of Ministry Health Care and Affinity Health System, where Will is the first to announce delays in the HITECH Act (ARRA) EHR stimulus money. To make his case he gives two reasons for his belief:

  1. In my experience, government mandates delays are the rule
  2. This EHR deadlines are completely unreasonable

HHS finally has Kathleen Sebelius in as secretary and so that should help move things along. However, I have to agree with Will that the EHR stimulus money will be delayed.

I’m not really blaming HHS or ONC or any other government organization for this. The HITECH Act (ARRA) guidelines are so vague that they should take their time and make sure the $18 billion is spent wisely. Luckily, I feel like David Blumenthal seems to understand the importance of the decisions they make as far as what’s defined as a “certified EHR” and meaningful use. That’s a good thing and it’s better to do things slowly than to do things poorly.

This will be bad news for all those EHR vendors who aren’t selling products. More delays on the definitions of these two things could put a number of EHR vendors in trouble (as I’ve spoken about a few times before).

I think we’re in for a really interesting year for those interested in selecting an EHR and the EHR space. I wonder if the first person to get a stimulus check from the government will take a picture and post it on Twitter or some blog. That will be a momentous occasion indeed.

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May 3, 2009 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: CCHIT Certification  EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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Kathleen Sebelius Sworn in as HHS Secretary – Impact on EHR

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I’m sure that most of you in healthcare saw that Kathleen Sebelius was finally sworn in as the new HHS secretary. You can read the reuters report on the confirmation and swearing in of Kathleen Sebelius.

From the report, there’s no doubt that a lot of Kathleen Sebelius’s first job will be to work on this swine flu. No doubt a very important thing for her to keep an eye on and do what she can to protect us from having a major outbreak.

However, I must admit that I get the feeling that were going to hear very little from this new HHS secretary about EMR and EHR. I could be wrong, but I just don’t see her getting really involved in all the discussions of EHR implementation and the $18 billion of EHR stimulus money as part of the HITECH Act (ARRA).

Certainly she’ll be around for major announcements, but I get the strong impression that it’s actually David Blumenthal that’s going to be in the trenches doing the work of defining “certified EHR” and “meaningful use.”

Anyone know more about the situation that can help clarify what might happen, who will be responsible and whether Kathleen Sebelius will do much for EMR as HHS secretary?

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April 30, 2009 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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Kathleen Sebelius as Obama’s HHS Secretary

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An AP report is announcing that Kathleen Sebelius will be announced as Barack Obams’s new nominee for HHS secretary tomorrow. The article says the following about Kathleen Sebelius as HHS secretary:

Sebelius, 60, is seen as a steady hand, an experienced public official who knows how to work across political lines. As a former state insurance commissioner, she is unfazed by the complexities of health care and insurance issues.

Of course, Sebelius will still have to gain confirmation from the Senate which could be interesting because Sebelius has clashed with abortion opponents in Kansas and the fight might head to Washington.

Another delay in the nomination of the HHS secretary could mean even more delays in the HITECH act and EHR adoption. I for one hope that health care doesn’t have to wait even longer for the HHS secretary to start getting down to business. There’s just far too much to do for us to be without a leader.

UPDATE: It’s now official that Kathleen Sebelius has been named as Obama’s HHS secretary. Check out the Huffington Post report and the Washington Post.

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March 2, 2009 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: HealthCare IT
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