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Thread: EHR, ERC and Meaningful Use.....

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    OptiBoardaholic J.P.'s Avatar
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    EHR, ERC and Meaningful Use.....

    So the newest government guidelines (For those whom are Medicare providers) are coming down to the wire to get in before penalties begin to incur.

    Big Brother-Uncle (ObamaCare) of the government is stepping in on guidelines that we as health care providers to unsure "Continuity of Care" across the board.

    What are your thoughts on all the new guidelines that must be met now, Not only for Medicare patients, but across the board?
    Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
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    These guidelines were in motion long before Obama became president.

    My office has gone through all the motions of setting up EHR, and meaningful use, e-prescribe.... not to mention medicare recredentialing, which has to be done every five years now...at a fee. Every penny the government gave in incentives, went out the door in salaries and purchases...mostly salaries. So if this was supposed to be a a government stimulus plan, it worked. If it is supposed to be an improvement in healthcare...well, I'm still waiting...

    It is the most meaningless thing I have ever done. I don't see how this will result in better patient care.

    At least with the ACA, as much as people like to malign it, and depending how you look at it, some will benefit. If everyone was paying in, and if cost and utilization could be controlled, there would be enough to go around.

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    OptiBoardaholic J.P.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fjpod View Post
    These guidelines were in motion long before Obama became president.

    My office has gone through all the motions of setting up EHR, and meaningful use, e-prescribe.... not to mention medicare recredentialing, which has to be done every five years now...at a fee. Every penny the government gave in incentives, went out the door in salaries and purchases...mostly salaries. So if this was supposed to be a a government stimulus plan, it worked. If it is supposed to be an improvement in healthcare...well, I'm still waiting...

    It is the most meaningless thing I have ever done. I don't see how this will result in better patient care.

    At least with the ACA, as much as people like to malign it, and depending how you look at it, some will benefit. If everyone was paying in, and if cost and utilization could be controlled, there would be enough to go around.
    Ah, well it just most recently came to our attention that it MUST be implemented. Must go regional, who knows.

    I can't wait to hear how people react when they do to their dentist and are asked about the sexual preferences/diseases.
    Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
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    MasterCrafter OptiBoarder MasterCrafter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by J.P. View Post
    Ah, well it just most recently came to our attention that it MUST be implemented. Must go regional, who knows.

    I can't wait to hear how people react when they do to their dentist and are asked about the sexual preferences/diseases.
    Our offices started weighing people and measuring their height. We are supposedly getting more money from the insuarnce company's for doing this. But it will be mandated in Obamacare.

    The reason the Government is doing this is to collect peoples BMI.

    With Obamacare if you are 30 pounds overweight you are considered OBESE, If you are OBESE you are going to have to see a counselor to determine why you are OBESE.

    Alot of patients are not happy about going thru these extra steps. In fact they are getting ticked off.

    The day I go into the Dentists office and they want to measure and weigh me or ask my sexual preferences... I'm out.

    BTW i'm not obese either. I just feel the Dentist/Optometrist ect. Does not need this information from me.



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    OptiBoardaholic J.P.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MasterCrafter View Post
    Our offices started weighing people and measuring their height. We are supposedly getting more money from the insuarnce company's for doing this. But it will be mandated in Obamacare.

    The reason the Government is doing this is to collect peoples BMI.

    With Obamacare if you are 30 pounds overweight you are considered OBESE, If you are OBESE you are going to have to see a counselor to determine why you are OBESE.

    Alot of patients are not happy about going thru these extra steps. In fact they are getting ticked off.

    The day I go into the Dentists office and they want to measure and weigh me or ask my sexual preferences... I'm out.

    BTW i'm not obese either. I just feel the Dentist/Optometrist ect. Does not need this information from me.
    Well I'm screwed, By "Health and Weight" charts, I'm 100 pounds overwight, but most of mine is muscle mass. I'd like to see them rush me off to a "fat camp"
    Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
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    Odd that we would admit to doing useless un-beneficial proceedures (weighing, ht,, etc) because we get more money for this even though it is useless to both the practioner and patient.

    Kind of reminds me of Pat Caroline saying they ran the schermer's test "Because the patient was impressed and they got $40.00 for it. Even though he stated that the last 11 clinical trials showed it to be valueless.

    Chip

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    I think there is some misconception here. Ht. and wt. are not isseus one would typically be concerned about in an OD or Opticians's office, and are not a requirement of the ACA. They are implementing EHRs to make care more transferable between offices, thereby reducing duplication of services. This is being modelaed after the VA/Military models that have proved so beneficial to troops. While the VA is much maligned, it is THE model in EHRs. The use of EHRs will save a tremendous amount if it works as these have done and is a good thing. In recent studies we find that approximately 30% of care is wasted, due to such duplication, and considering health care is fast approaching 20% of GDP, don't you feel some reform is necessary to control the greedy folks who do take advantage of procedural things as Chip has mentioned above?

    All of these issues are still in the implementation phase, however. Any sweeping policy that goes through extensive formulation stages, and then is implemented and will face modification as it is addressed by rules and other policies developed as it is operationalized. The coming election will tell a great deal about where it is going to end up. Even Gov. Romney now admits that several key sections will be retained if he is elected. It will beinteresting to watch.

    I hope this is helpful, and I am pleased to see it being discussed here.

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    Listen...people...please...all this stuff...weighing people, EMR, e-prescribe, etc. is NOT Obamacare. The timetable for this was set in motion long before Obama was elected, and even before his name was a household word.

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    Quote Originally Posted by MasterCrafter View Post
    Our offices started weighing people and measuring their height. We are supposedly getting more money from the insuarnce company's for doing this. But it will be mandated in Obamacare.

    The reason the Government is doing this is to collect peoples BMI.

    With Obamacare if you are 30 pounds overweight you are considered OBESE, If you are OBESE you are going to have to see a counselor to determine why you are OBESE.

    Alot of patients are not happy about going thru these extra steps. In fact they are getting ticked off.

    The day I go into the Dentists office and they want to measure and weigh me or ask my sexual preferences... I'm out.

    BTW i'm not obese either. I just feel the Dentist/Optometrist ect. Does not need this information from me.
    You don't actually have to do this stuff. You're not understanding what is required. Height and weight is required to be in an EMR system for it to be a qualified system. It does not mean that you have to measure and weigh people. And you are not going to get paid more for weighing people...your doctors will get paid a medicare incentive payment if they implement a qualified EMR system and show Meaningful Use.

    And if you are an optician owned optical practice, with an employed OD, the whole medicare incentive thing doesn't apply to the practice, because it is predicated on the provider being a physician (in this case an OD physician). And an employed optometrist in your optical practice isn't billing medicare directly anyway, because refractions aren't covered by medicare. But I suppose if your doctor is an independant, and bills medicare directly for comprehensive medical eyecare, then he(she) is eligible for the incentives.
    Last edited by fjpod; 09-13-2012 at 02:33 PM.

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    OptiBoardaholic J.P.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fjpod View Post
    You don't actually have to do this stuff. You're not understanding what is required. Height and weight is required to be in an EMR system for it to be a qualified system. It does not mean that you have to measure and weigh people. And you are not going to get paid more for weighing people...your doctors will get paid a medicare incentive payment if they implement a qualified EMR system and show Meaningful Use.

    And if you are an optician owned optical practice, with an employed OD, the whole medicare incentive thing doesn't apply to the practice, because it is predicated on the provider being a physician (in this case an OD physician). And an employed optometrist in your optical practice isn't billing medicare directly anyway, because refractions aren't covered by medicare. But I suppose if your doctor is an independant, and bills medicare directly for comprehensive medical eyecare, then he(she) is eligible for the incentives.
    You can get away with asking height and weight now, but you WILL have to get measurments in phase 2 or 3, there is no ifs ands or butts about it
    Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
    ~ Mark Twain ~

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    Quote Originally Posted by J.P. View Post
    You can get away with asking height and weight now, but you WILL have to get measurments in phase 2 or 3, there is no ifs ands or butts about it
    You don't have to actually weigh people, you can ask their height and weight and record it if they tell you, or you can record refused.

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