Home Forums Discussions Meaningful Use Smoking

I wish the smoking tab was in the Summary section. That way I could go back and enter the status on all the patients that I already have the info somewhere in their chart and be able to close the chart without making a new encounter. This one item will keep me from passing.

Leslie,
You can also record smoking status in the Risk Factor box. Open a chart, open the Risk Factor box at top, it's under SH, check off current or former smoker. It will save information even if you do not save new encounter.

I do not know if you get credit for previously signed encounters. Try it and see. Worth a shot.

Thanks, Donn. I am going to try that right now.

Sorry, DonnA

Pooh,

The risk factor stays marked but the smoking status does not and is therefore not counted.

Leslie,
I know who "Donna" is but who is "Pooh"?

Hahaha! My brain is fried, staff is/are throwing things at me, and the stuffed donkey on my desk is staring at me in a really weird way. Give me a break!

Silly, willy, nilly old bear......

I thought you were into mules?!!

Tom

Tom, how can you live in Iowa and not know that mules have a donkey as their father?? Did you get lost in a corn maize as a child?

Leslie,
How did you know that Winnie the Pooh was my favorite childhood movie?

Donna,

The key question is did you watch the most recent new Pooh movie ??? I only ask as that I have an 11 and 14 year old daughter.....I did.

See all the fun Bert would have missed if he was "gone".

Damn! I didn't know there was a new Pooh movie. That's what I get for not having children. I'll have to check it out.

The new Pooh movie came out on DVD in last month or so.

Can you, for the next 45 days, have 100% of the Medicare patient encounters fulfill/comply with the Core 9 measure, and hopefully then average >50% compliance for the 90d period as required for the measure? Might be able to pass this year if so.

Chris,

That is what I am desperately trying to do. I guess I will not know until January if it works.

Well,Leslie, after all of these months and months of working at it, I am sure you will be successful.

Leslie,
I hate to burst your bubble, but if you did not upgrade to Version 6 by October 3, you cannot report for 2011. You must use the certified version for a full 3 months in 2011 to report for 2011. Here is the link with the timetable from Medicare:
https://www.cms.gov/ehrincentiveprograms
Also, the statistics are counted using ALL patients, not just Medicare patients.

But, there is good news. That is, you can start the incentive program in either 2011 or 2012 for the initial 3 month reporting and still qualify for the full amount of incentives over the next 5 years.

JBS and I have been over and over this stuff in our local group to try to understand it, and we can provide more information if you need it.

This is not what I've been told by many, including the consultants from NJ-HITECH.
This "MU" is a Medicare (or Medicaid) incentive program.
The stats collected for reporting depends on who you choose in the MU Wizard (top left radio buttons)... it should only pull data from those (Medicare) patients.
I don't bother doing MU cchit with commercial insurances, though I'm sure at some time in the (hopefully not) near future it will be "required" by commercial insurances as well.

Donna,

I have read that link and all it says is that I have to demonstrate meaningful use by using an EHR which is certified. Although I did not update prior to October 3rd, I can still document meaningful use in hopefully all the core areas. And, AC was certified prior to October 3rd. I think the guidelines are somewhat vague and I hope to use that to my advantage.

Steven:

My girls are 10 and 13 so I am dying to know if you have seen TANGLED? I have, it is great - forget Winnie.

I have seen Tangled many times....i see almost all kids movies and unfortunately find myself watching the disney channel even when they are not home.

Chris,
Yes, MU is a Medicare program, but Medicare documentation says the denominator is "all unique patients" seen within the 90 day reporting period. If you watch your AC MU Wizard report, it is clear that it is counting all patients.

So, you are suggesting that AC has it wrong? Even though they got the certification?

Donna,
Looks like you are right. Hmm. Nice to know we're getting misinformation from a HITECH REC. Maybe they assumed it could/would generate a report of just Medicare visits, not sure, but I and my office manager are POSITIVE they stated this only needed to be done with Medicare visits.
Well, looks like I and my staff are in for even more work. Probably won't be worth the effort in subsequent years, especially considering the incentive payment goes down and attestation requirements this year are supposedly easier than they will be in the future.
Really (not) looking forward to it being mandatory-or-penalty, for CMS and insurances across the board... and tied to Board recertification and the like...

Chris,
When I had initial contact with our local REC, I was already up and running with AC. They wanted me to show them what I was doing. I had no confidence that they had anything to tell me that I didn't already know, so I did not pursue anything further with them. The RECs are new to this game as well.

Year 2 criteria are the same as this year 1, just for 12 months rather than 3. So, if you understand the criteria, next year shouldn't be too bad, and the bonus is still pretty good.

Leslie,

This might be the definitive answer to the question about using the certified version.

From the CMS website:
"To be a meaningful EHR user, an EP must have 50 percent or more of their patient encounters during the EHR reporting period at a practice/location or practices/locations equipped with certified EHR technology. For the purpose of calculating this 50 percent threshold, any encounter where a medical treatment is provided and/or evaluation and management services are provided should be considered a "patient encounter."

So,it looks like as long as at least half of your visits for the 90 day period are recorded with the certified version, you should meet the standard.

I hereby certify that more than half of Leslie's visits during the 90 day period are with V6.
Is there any way that any one can prove otherwise?

Unfortunately, Jon, everything is discoverable with the meta data from the EMR. It would tell exactly when V6 was installed, and of course, would show when encounters were saved.

Hopefully, none of us will ever be audited, but I think it is better to be safe.