Home Forums Discussions Meaningful Use Version 7.1.1 and doing MU Stage 2

And yes, FrankD --
I have opted out of Stage II. It just makes no sense at all.
And I can't afford to be a "medical home" -- though that is what I have done for the last 40 years. But "proving" it is impossible without a fulltime "medial home specialist" on staff.

We don't need to "boycott" everyone, Joseph. There are useful things in the drug industry, and sometimes hospitals are better than no hospitals -- the trick is to figure out how to take what you need, and leave the rest

Exactly Tom:

Thanks for being so enlightening and trying to make sense and looking once again at the original question of this thread and trying to keep sanctity of thread asking for help.

Noted that you are saying Kumbaya like many other doctors trying to do their practice and their life---old fashioned barebone practice only-- NO PCMH, No MU2, no to this nonsense and no to that rubbish, but still yes to some what other consider as rubbish and trying to juggle your abilities. I wish you all the good luck in your attempt to reach eternal nirvana.

My personal problem is that "health maintenance" has been grafted onto traditional medical practice without considering the payment model.

Who pays us for installing and maintaining an EMR? Who pays us for keeping track of the myriad "quality" measures that are promulgated by different and often conflicting agencies? Who pays us for handholding patients to use the "portal" so they can "interact meaningfully" with their personal electronic medical record.

Answer, NO ONE. There is no provision for that in the E&M ("press the lever, take the pellet"), fee-for-service, "traditional" payment model -- which private practice is wedded to.

I can do all those things -- but not for free.

I don't know if it is really a conspiracy to drive independent practice into extinction, but I suspect it probably is. For me, the conspiracy potential is real, but not particularly relevant. For someone 45-55, it's a real problem. For someone in their 30's -- it probably doesn't make any difference. Those folks live in a different universe from me, and they are already employed by some giant corporate entity that pays for all the "health maintenance" through some other revenue stream (not E&M) that I have no access to.

But the whole enterprise is so dreadfully complex, confusing, anti-life, and non-intuitive that it won't continue in its present form. There is a glimmer of hope in AmazingCharts/PriMed -- maybe they can be a sort of Moses to lead us out of the corporate wilderness. EPIC and Cerner can't do it. Those outfits are sclerotic already.

Tom,
I enjoy and commiserate with your views, I'm 63 soon and will probably be working another 10-12 years and will take the hit from medicare for not doing MU or PCMH. Perhaps we dinosaurs will all vanish together when whatever the next 'Regulatory Comet' comes crashing down.

Yes.
We need a "dinosaurs" thread so that us old folks can commiserate with each other and not just keep throwing cold water on the younger guys who really think it is in their best interest to "check the formulary" every time they write a prescription -- so they can use THEIR time to make money for the insurance company.

Makes me positively ill to think about these things, but it isn't modern, so really doesn't belong in the general run of posts.

Final Rule...

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/art...m_medium=email&utm_campaign=mh-alert

Thanks, what we have been waiting to hear!

Final rule cms link
Final rule CMS

The myth that centralized Government can improve everything has not changed since the tower of Babel began on the plains of mesopotamia. I grew up in a prosperous country (Cuba) which Marxist communish demolished. It is happening here, under the slower Fabian communism. Having been well trained in the absurdities of it, I got my step 1 done in 2011 with AC, and have continued attesting ever since (now waiting for v 7.1.2 for step 2) I hate it, but those who do not adapt will be steamrolled by this illegal Govt. out of profitability. Meantime real patient care suffers as the Govt, statisticians massage the numbers to say the opposite.

SO, dinosaur time over, has anyone started v 7.1.2 and seen if it gels with MU 2?

JR 55yo