In addition to the government’s stimulus incentives, e-prescription incentives, and electronic health record (EHR) subsidies, physicians may also receive Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) incentive payments from CMS equal to 2% of total estimated Medicare Part B PFS allowed charges during the reporting period for 2010.

To participate in the 2010 PQRI, practices must report information on individual PQRI quality measures or measures groups. An easy and quick way to submit required information is directly from EHR software.

However, the software needs to be “qualified” by CMS for electronic submission. Currently, only seven EHR systems have been qualified by CMS for electronic reporting purposes.

In order to qualify, each EHR vendor went through a thorough process to check the capability of providing the required PQRI data elements for 10 PQRI measures. These “qualified” EHRs capture the required data for the measure calculation, but also transmit the required information in the requested file format.

Products that have not been qualified by CMS may claim similar capabilities, but CMS cannot guarantee that these other products will be compatible for EHR based submission for PQRI.

Luckily, Healthcare DPS offers an EHR that has been qualified for electronic submissions, allowing physicians to easily submit for both PQRI and e-prescription incentives provided by CMS.

For more information, please contact 877-423-7701 or visit www.healthcaredps.com.

For more detailed PQRI information, please visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/pqri/

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RHIOs which are Regional Health Information Organizations were created to facilitate the sharing of patient information among health care providers at the point of care within a community. The overall goal is to achieve dramatic improvements in healthcare in terms of safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity through the use of electronic health records.

The key factor that has hindered many physicians from switching from paper-based records to electronic format is the financial barrier. However, through government support, RHIOs all over the area are receiving grants to aid qualifying community physicians with EHR implementation. With the significant monetary assistance available, the barrier to adoption is removed. Physicians can easily adopt more efficient workflows and improve their practices as well as provide increased quality care to all patients.

For more information about available grants at participating RHIOs, please contact Healthcare DPS at 877-423-7701.

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