West Texas Health Regional Extension Center Encourages Rural Physicians to Register Sooner than Later

More than one-third of the nation’s primary care providers have registered with the 62 federally designated regional extension centers to move forward with electronic health record (EHR) adoption, according to iHealthBeat. However, much of the U.S. health care system still uses paper records.

With the registration deadline looming for physicians to establish meaningful use with the Medicare & Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program Registration and Attestation System, officials at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health encourage all health care providers located in West Texas to sign up with the West Texas Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (WTxHITREC).

“Ongoing regional extension center services are not assured — or only at much increased prices — to those who are not enrolled members of the regional extension center,” said Billy Philips, Ph.D., vice president of the F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health.

Health care providers have until Feb. 29 to register and attest to meeting meaningful use requirements to receive Medicare and Medicaid payments for 2011, according to the Texas Medical Association. Feb. 29 is also the deadline for pending Medicare Part B claims from 2011.

Medicare EHR incentive payments to eligible professionals are based on 75 percent of the Part B allowed charges for covered professional services during the entire payment year, according to the Texas Medical Association. Health care providers must meet $24,000 of Part B allowable charges to be eligible to receive the maximum Medicare EHR incentive payment for 2011. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expects to issue an incentive payment in April 2012 for 75 percent of the Part B charges from 2011.

“Rural physicians close to retirement should not simply wait it out,” Philips said.

For those who might retire in the next two to five years, EHRs add about $100,000 to a practices’ going rate, add back up to nine hours a week more for clinical care provision and increase the opportunity for greater revenue capture for right coding of procedures.

Philips said those who are not able to retire or are too young to retire should sign up to adopt EHRs to avoid CMS penalties of at least 2 percent of their CMS billings, increase the likelihood that students and residents will rotate with them if they remain on paper records and provide features important to better patient care and outcomes.

The National Vision for Regional Extension Centers was established by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The office has established a nationwide network of 62 extension centers, each serving a defined geographic area, with the goal of helping 100,000 priority primary care providers adopt and successfully implement health information technology. Regional extension centers offer technical assistance, guidance, and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of EHRs.

With a focus on primary care providers and rural and critical access hospitals, the WTxHITREC has served many health care professionals throughout the 108 western counties of Texas.
For more information on eligibility for EHR incentive payments and services provided by the WTxHITREC, call (806) 743-7960, email info@wtxhitrec.org or visit www.wtxhitrec.org.

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