A couple of years of fun

Mary Stevens, editor, CMIO magazine

“We’re in for a couple of years of fun,” Farzad Mostashari, MD, wryly told his audience at the Physician IT Symposium during the HIMSS conference in February. He was commenting on efforts to engage physicians in the meaningful use program.

Sometimes the most basic statements are the most prescient. We learned today that Mostashari will succeed David Blumenthal as chair of the ONC, at a critical time for federal health IT initiatives in general and for the meaningful use program in particular. Attestation is about to begin for the Medicare meaningful use incentives; Stage 2 and Stage 3 criteria are in development.

During a CMS National Provider Call for eligible hospitals earlier this week, it was announced that more than 35,000 active eligible professionals (EP) and eligible hospitals (EH) have registered for Medicare and Medicaid meaningful use incentives as of the end of March. More than $64 million in Medicaid EHR incentive payments have been allocated, and 14 states have started their Medicaid incentive programs.

Like his predecessor, Mostashari has often acknowledged that the current iteration of meaningful use is a start, a work in progress. Sites and providers that haven’t yet entered the effort still have plenty of questions, and CMS’ recent National Provider Calls for EPs and EHs wisely included ample time for questions and answers after providing walk-throughs of the online registration process. The questions still overflowed the allotted call time.

The overall message for both professionals and hospitals was to get registered and make every effort to do it properly the first time. Most of the callers’ questions reflected their attempts to do just that. Several, however, had more to do with what might happen after registration. I’ve paraphrased one such exchange, from the eligible hospital call, here:

Q: We’re dually eligible for both the Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs. If we get that first Medicaid incentive payment for AIU (adopting, implementing or upgrading health IT), and if that’s all we ever do, would we have to pay it back?

A: You would not have to pay that back for AIU, but we’d hope to you’d continue and get the rest of your incentives.

It will take more than hope to get a critical mass of providers and facilities to adopt EHRs and begin to meaningfully improve patient care. Mostashari has impressive organizational skills and informatics experience: He’ll need them as the ONC meets the IT challenges (fun?) ahead.

What advice do you have for the nation’s new coordinator of health IT? Let me know at mstevens@trimedmedia.com.

Mary Stevens, Editor