February 2010

Achieving "Meaningful Use" of Electronic Health Records

A Polsinelli Shughart Health Care Update

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which was included as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, created three incentive programs targeted at eligible health care professionals and hospitals that can demonstrate “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHR). These programs provide payment incentives in the Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS), Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicaid programs.

On January 13, 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule to establish the initial criteria that an eligible professional and eligible hospital must meet in order to qualify for the incentive payments, how the incentive payment amounts will be calculated and how payment adjustments will be made under Medicare for those failing to meet the meaningful use requirements. Eligible hospitals may begin to qualify for incentive payments as early as October 2010, and other eligible professionals may begin to qualify for incentive payments beginning January 2011.

In order for hospitals and health care professionals to take full advantage of the EHR incentive programs, it is important to learn and understand the eligibility criteria and how to meet them. Please click on the following discussion points to learn more:

• The Criteria that must be met to achieve “meaningful use”
• How to successfully report “meaningful use” to earn the incentives
• The amount of incentive available to hospitals and health care professionals under each of the the Medicare FFS program for health care professionals, Medicare FFS program for hospitals, the Medicare Advantage program and the Medicaid program

For more information:

For further guidance on how to take full advantage of the EHR incentive programs, please contact any of the following members of the Polsinelli Shughart PC Health Care team:

• Janice Anderson – janderson@polsinelli.com | 312.873.3623
• Tom O'Donnell – todonnell@polsinelli.com | 816.360.4173
• Valerie Smith – vsmith@polsinelli.com | 312.873.3602
• Rebecca Frigy – rfrigy@polsinelli.com | 314.889.7013
• Anne Cooper – acooper@polsinelli.com | 312.873.3606

About Polsinelli Shughart PC

With more than 470 attorneys, Polsinelli Shughart PC is a national law firm that is a recognized leader in the areas of business litigation, financial services, bankruptcy, real estate, business law, labor and employment, construction, life sciences and health care. Serving corporate, institutional and individual clients regionally, nationally and worldwide, Polsinelli Shughart is known for successfully applying forward-thinking strategies for both straightforward and complex legal matters. The firm can be found online at www.polsinelli.com.