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√ Ingenix will be offering a new service to assist providers in achieving the meaningful use.

√ Ingenix and Health Language, Inc. announced the Ingenix’s “Global Code Manager”.

√ Federal Agencies are changing their policies to assist EHR adoption and e-Prescribing.

Category: NewsFlash
Date: September 1, 2010
Views:1,681 views
Information:

Hello, I’m Dawn DiPaola and I will be discussing news EHR products and services that are assisting providers meet specific government standards, such as meaningful use, e-prescribing, and coding.

Many EHR vendors are adding features to their products to help physicians meet the meaningful use criteria.

In fact, Ingenix will be offering a new service to assist providers in achieving the meaningful use, which includes Patient and Family Engagement criteria. The EHR vendor has added a library of medical reference and consumer health materials using the Krames database. Providers using the database can access and provide to patients information about medical conditions, treatment options, and procedure recovery instructions. Ingenix is including access to these materials as part of the low, monthly subscription fee for CareTracker EHR.

Ingenix has also developed a product to help health care providers shift from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets by the government’s October 1, 2010 deadline. Healthcare providers struggling to shift from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets by the government’s Oct. 1, 2013 deadline could find the path to conversion a little easier, according to executives at Ingenix and Health Language, Inc.

Ingenix and Health Language, Inc announced the Ingenix Global Code Manager, a solution designed to translate between the 13,000-item ICD-9 code set and the expanded ICD-10 code set, which contains more than 68,000 codes. Overseen by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the 10^th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems is designed to facilitate better analysis of disease patterns, severity and treatment outcomes. It’s also developed to simplify claims submissions, processing and payments; and support healthcare quality improvement efforts.

And lastly, federal agencies are changing policies to assist EHR adoption and e-Prescribing. New DEA rules may permit the electronic prescribing of controlled substances. This is expected to give healthcare providers more incentive to adopt health IT systems. Currently, the providers must maintain a separate paper-and-fax-based workflow to prescribe controlled substances. The DEA rule will go into effect around the same time the ONC finalizes its criteria for EHR certification. This timing will provide an additional incentive for physicians who are upgrading their systems in order to qualify for financial incentives to also adopt e-prescribing systems.

It will certainly be a challenge for physicians to meet meaningful use criteria, but it is positive to learn of EHR vendors and government agencies taking the necessary steps to assist physicians in becoming meaningful users of EHR technology.

I’m Dawn DiPaola, and this is EHRtv NewsFlash. Thanks for watching.