Meaningful Use Best Practices
Five Meaningful Use Best Practices For A Faster Incentive Check
To help your practice get the most incentive money from the government's Meaningful Use incentive program, at the earliest date possible, consider these five Meaningful Use best practices before buying a solution.
Meaningful Use Best Practice #1: Take a candid look at what you can take on.
Not sure if your practice has the resources right now to learn and use a comprehensive EHR solution? Consider a "stepping stone" solution, like Rcopia-MU. It's a low cost, low risk solution for doctors ready for a Meaningful Use incentives check, but not quite ready to go fully paperless! A single three-hour training session is virtually all it takes to get users fully up to speed in Rcopia-MU.
Rcopia-MU meets all Meaningful Use core objectives, and serves as a good introduction to electronic health records. Get your "feet wet" with Rcopia-MU now, and when your practice is ready, you'll be able to migrate to a fully paperless EHR much faster. (And we can recommend more than 200 partner providers of the best EHR solutions available! Rcopia is integrated in many of these solutions, so right away you'll feel comfortable using them!)
Meaningful Use Best Practice #2: Take the "do it right" approach to training.
Keep this in mind even for the easiest solutions. Start by assigning a dedicated user to learn your EHR solution (Rcopia-MU comes with free training!) Then task this minted expert user to hold several smaller training sessions with other prospected users in the days ahead. In short, give at least one user "ownership" of training. Note that this is not the same as giving a single user ownership of your EHR solution!
Meaningful Use Best Practice #3: Measure your progress regularly.
No serious discussion of best practices can leave out the importance of tracking progress - and a discussion of Meaningful Use best practices is no different.
For example, the government has assigned 25 core objectives. It's important that you choose an EHR that gives you a way to see if your practice is meeting them!
Rcopia-MU provides a way for users to do so at any time, simply by pulling up a progress report in the system. A list of all twenty-five objectives is plainly visible, including a color coded icon by each objective that gives a simple illustration of whether that objective has been met.
Meaningful Use Best Practice #4: Reach Meaningful Use attestation as soon as you can.
Attestation is the process of submitting your incentives claims. Once you've met the core objectives, don't delay on attesting this – the sooner you start claiming Meaningful Use, the more you can get back! Remember, the government will pay you to meaningfully use a certified EHR – up to $21K this year and $63K by 2015. This is real cash in hand every year for your practice!
Which leads us to one more best practice…
Meaningful Use Best Practice #5: Look for a solution that can also qualify you for additional incentives!
In addition to the tens of thousands of dollars you can earn in Meaningful Use incentive money, your practice may also qualify for MIPPA incentives – if you see both Medicare and Medicaid patients and use a certified solution like Rcopia-MU.
Have additional questions about Meaningful Use best practices? Complete the form about for a no-obligation conversation!