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December 15, 2010

ifroehlich

Meaningful Use and Certification: DrFirst Supports 10 EHR Partners in Achieving Success

DrFirst, Inc. congratulates ten of its “Open Borders” electronic health record (EHR) partners for receiving Meaningful Use certification and one partner for passing Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®) certification. DrFirst has enabled the following nine companies to be designated as ONC-ATCB-certified for offering meaningful use EHR: Chartlogic, Inc.; eHealth Made EASY; First Insight, Inc.; Greenway Medical Technologies; Intuitive Medical Software, Mdflow Systems, LLC, nextEMR; Secure Infosys; and Universal EMR Solutions. In addition, DrFirst partner HIT Services Group (HITSG) recently joined over 20 DirFirst partners in achieving CCHIT certification.
By integrating Rcopia into their respective products, these firms meet the e-prescribing requirement for 2011 and 2012 for HHS meaningful use as set forth by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). These DrFirst partners now offer software that officially meets the CMS meaningful use requirements under the ARRA HITECH Act (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) to eligible providers nationwide. The purpose of the ARRA HITECH Act is to encourage healthcare providers who render care to Medicare or Medicaid patients to adopt meaningful use EMR (electronic medical records) or EHR to improve the safety and quality of patient care. DrFirst partners with over 130 EHR/EMR companies nationwide that utilize Rcopia as the e-prescribing component of their systems.
EHRs that satisfy meaningful use regulations offer software that enable eligible providers to track 15 meaningful use criteria including reporting patient demographics, smoking status, clinical summaries, and drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks. These EHRs also meet 5 of 10 of the HHS meaningful use menu items — with immunization data sent to registries as a required menu item.
“As the first Complete EHR to be certified, ChartLogic has already seen the great importance physicians place on Meaningful Use,” said Zubin Emsley, CEO, ChartLogic, Inc. “This adds to the efficiency and safety practices have been enjoying through e-prescribing with DrFirst. Congratulations to DrFirst on another advance in their excellent service.”
Nitin Rai, President and CEO of First Insight, a practice management and EHR solutions company serving the vision care industry said, “Receiving this certification will help pave the way for eligible optometrists and ophthalmologists to demonstrate meaningful use and qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentives. DrFirst played an instrumental role making this possible.”
By demonstrating meaningful use of EHR, eligible providers can take advantage of ARRA HITECH financial incentives up to $63,750 over six years if they choose to participate in the program by demonstrating and attesting to meaningful use. These physicians must attest to meeting meaningful use regulations via a CMS meaningful use secure Web site. Eligible providers who do not successfully demonstrate meaningful use by 2015 will have a payment adjustment in their Medicare reimbursement between three and five percent.


About ifroehlich

Ms. Froehlich has been with DrFirst since its inception in 2000. In her role as Director of Marketing, she oversees the planning, directing, and coordinating all marketing and public relations efforts at DrFirst. Ms. Froehlich has a B.S. in Communications from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.