Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Should I update 5.029 to any version of 6 right now?

Haven't posted for awhile so 'hello' to everyone.

I have a large configuration -- 3 locations (2 using RDP on VPN), 40 work stations, 9 providers. We are currently running v5.029 without hiccups. We have NO need for meaningful use.

Every time we 'upgrade' to a new version it requires hours and hours of IT time as can be seen from above.

We know we will need to upgrade for ICD 10 at some point in the future. We have been reluctant to upgrade to V6 based on our bad experiences upgrading to a new version too early as well as shares of problems with V6 here.

So...should we upgrade now or wait until a stable version of 7 is out there and tested? ANY and all thoughts on this greatly appreciated.

Best,

James P. Clayton, M.D.
US Virgin Islands

We hesitated a long time also, and like you have no use for MU, and just went from 5.029 to 6.1.2. It went easily (aside from the IT staff mistakingly installing 6.1.0 first). The prescription writer is somewhat better, still some imperfections (doesn't remember pharmacy yet, not displaying Rx instructions as well). Otherwise, it was pretty invisible. It is no slower than 5.029. A version 6.2 has been mentioned that will address the forgetful pharmacy issue.

We changed to get a little better action out of the prescription writer mostly. Mail in pharmacies show up quite a bit more easily. We are not doing health maintenance or order reconciling, so changes there are invisible to us. There was also the issue that even if you keep the prior release static, other things change around it, like OS upgrades. Any software company will be devoting its efforts to making sure its current version works with those changes, and little effort towards its legacy products. Pretty soon, the corporate memory for the older product starts to fade, and support becomes less reliable. We called with some issue on 5.029 maybe 3 months ago, and got the response "You REALLY need to upgrade to a more current version..." This last week I had the dubious pleasure of investing $3,000 in upgrades to our other databases because the older version will not run on any current production machine, and sooner or later one of the servers is going to break. I guess I did not want to worry about coming in on a Monday and finding the whole system down with no quick fix at hand.

As to just when? Well, that is a bit like forever waiting for the next version of your favorite computer to come out because you know it will be faster, better and cheaper. I would base your timing on when would be the most convenient time; a long weekend, maybe. All versions will have some imperfections, and the next better version always just a few months away..

If you are not going to do MU staff then most of the benefit you would get from v6 is better eRx module. I am currently on V6.0.10 and very happy with it on the P2P setup in solo practice with 6 workstations. Merry Christmas everyone

Rememmber, a stable version of 7 is going to be PM. A long way away and probably buggy at first.

My answer is if you don't use the Star printer, then yes, yes, yes.

If you do use it, then yes to the 50th power.

If you are not participating in M.U., stay with version 5.
It's stable, works fast and reliably.

If you are going to report M.U. data, upgrade to the latest v6.1.2. Understand v6 is slower in many regards, and more buggy than 5. ERx works good though.

I agree with what others have said. But stay with what is working well for you. Upgrade only when you NEED to upgrade, not just for the sake of upgrading.

that being said, 9 providers under the Medicare MU could yield quite a lot of money to pay for the IT time to institute the change. You would get a lot more if you qualified for Medicaid MU. I understand the reasons why many are not participating in MU. I'm just saying that if MU is ever in your future, do it now while the money is there and use the incentives to reinvest in the technology base of your offices. Just food for thought.

Is the MU dollars per provider or per practice? I was under the idea it was just per provider. We have 3 doctors, 2PAs, and 1 NP. If it is per provider, yikes. Can I still do it?

Thanks!

Ben

It is per provider but I don't think that PA's and NP's would qualify.

This is taken directly from the CMS website. IT IS PER PROVIDER. YOU CAN MAKE A LOT OF MONEY. There are two tracts: Medicare Incentive or Medicaid Incentive. Medicare pays $44,000 over 5 years, Medicaid pays $68,000 over 5 years. PER PROVIDER. Read the inclusions carefully, but there is liklihood that if you take either medicare or medicaid you will qualify for one or the other.

EMR Incentive Link

"Who is an Eligible Professional under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program?
Eligible professionals under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program include:

Doctor of medicine or osteopathy
Doctor of dental surgery or dental medicine
Doctor of podiatry
Doctor of optometry
Chiropractor

Who is an Eligible Professional under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program?
Eligible professionals under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program include:

Physicians (primarily doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy)
Nurse practitioner
Certified nurse-midwife
Dentist
Physician assistant who furnishes services in a Federally Qualified Health Center or Rural Health Clinic that is led by a physician assistant.

To qualify for an incentive payment under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, an eligible professional must meet one of the following criteria:

Have a minimum 30% Medicaid patient volume*
Have a minimum 20% Medicaid patient volume, and is a pediatrician*
Practice predominantly in a Federally Qualified Health Center or Rural Health Center and have a minimum 30% patient volume attributable to needy individuals

* Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) patients do not count toward the Medicaid patient volume criteria.

Eligible for Both Programs?
Eligible professionals eligible for both the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs must choose which incentive program they wish to participate in when they register. Before 2015, an eligible professional may switch programs only once after the first incentive payment is initiated. Most eligible professionals will maximize their incentive payments by participating in the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program."

Podiatrists?
Chiropractors?

And, don't the FQHCs make enough money off the federal government as it is?

No offense to the above health care providers.

Yes it's true. That was a direct quote from CMS. Podiatrists and chiropractors too (no offense intended).

FQHC's make way more than us, it's not fair.
I did a calculation for our local FQHC which has greater than 50 providers in it's organization and is Medicaid based. They will stand to yield (conservatively speaking) over 3.4 MILLION dollars over 5 years. Not to mention all the other federal grants which they get and we don't.