RHIO Data Exchange Incentive Program (DEIP) The NYS Dept. of Health has implemented a data exchange incentive program (DEIP) to help increase Health Information Exchange adoption. The program requires health centers to meet two milestones in order to receive incentive dollars: attest that a participation agreement has been signed with a qualifying entity (RHIO) on or after 10/1/16 ($2,000); and attest the ability to receive summary of care records electronically and continue data exchange for one year ($11,000 per connection). In order to receive funding, these milestones must be completed by September 30, 2018. Find updated information here.
NYeC DEIP Webinar Materials Now Online The slide deck from New York eHealth Collaborative’s (NYeC) recent webinar on the updated Data Exchange Incentive Program (DEIP) is now available here. Also available for download: DEIP overview documents for Meaningful Use Eligible Providers; Behavioral Health, Article 28, and Article 36-40, as well as Milestone 1 and Milestone 2 attestation forms that include the updated EHR Privacy and Security Requirements.
Health Information Exchange and the SHIN-NY The Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY) Regulation that was adopted in 2016 requires regulated health care facilities utilizing certified EHR technology under the federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) to become participants of a Qualified Entity (QE) or RHIO by March 9, 2018. This will allow for connectivity to the SHIN-NY, and participants must allow private and secure bi-directional access to patient information by other QE participants authorized by law to access such patient information. The NYS Dept. of Health may waive the requirements if a facility can demonstrate economic hardship, technological limitations, or practical limitations that are not reasonably within the control of the health care provider. Waiver requests must include a formal letter indicating the identified hardship, limitation, or circumstance for consideration to be submitted to NYS Dept. of Health at SHIN-NY@health.ny.gov no later than March 9, 2018. The SHIN-NY waiver guidance may be accessed here. The list of entities that are subject to the Regulation is located here. Contact information for the eight Qualified Entities (QEs) is listed here.
HITEQ Webinar on Community Health Center Privacy & Security Best Practices and Cloud-based EHR Considerations A recordingof the November 28th Community Health Center Privacy & Security Best Practices and Cloud-based EHR Considerations webinar hosted by the NYS-HCCN in partnership with HITEQ is now available. This presentation provides helpful information and workflow tips around privacy and security, specifically around cloud-hosted EHR security considerations. Additionally, it covers key privacy and security skills for health center staff and the role of leadership. If you have questions about the material presented, please contact the HCCN team at HCCN@chcanys.org.
Website Accessibility for People with Disabilities Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that all website content, including web applications, web pages and attached files, be accessible to people with disabilities. Visit NACHC’s website for helpful resources that explain how requirements affect FQHCs and provide steps for improving web accessibility. The US Access Board, an independent federal agency that provides T/TA on web accessibility requirements and standards, is offering a free webinar on Tuesday, November 28 at 1:00 p.m. for web and content developers who want to understand the revised Section 508 Standards and success criteria more thoroughly. To register, click here.
Recruitment for PRAPARE and Social Determinants of Health Project NYC-based FQHCs have the opportunity to receive technical and implementation support from CHCANYS on the PRAPARE SDH assessment tool. For more information, click here. If your health center is located in NYC and interested in participating in the PRAPARE project beginning in February 2018, please contact Amy Freiman at afreiman@chcanys.org to discuss eligibility and next steps.
RHIO Data Exchange Incentive Program Deadline Extended The NYS Dept. of Health recently received approval from CMS to extend the data exchange incentive program (DEIP) into the next federal fiscal year (FFY2018). Providers enrolled in DEIP must meet Milestone 2 by the new deadline of September 30, 2018 in order to receive the second milestone payment. In order to receive incentive dollars, health centers must: (1) attest that a participation agreement has been signed with a qualifying entity (RHIO) on or after 10/1/16 ($2,000) and (2) attest the ability to receive summary of care records electronically and continue data exchange for one year ($11,000 per connection). Updated information can be found here.
Reminder to Register Intent for Public Health Reporting All eligible providers who are attesting to the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program for reporting year 2017 must register their intent to submit data to the appropriate public health registries before or within 60 days of the start of their EHR Reporting Period. The last EHR Reporting Period in calendar year 2017 is October 3, – December 31, 2017. The last day to register intent for this reporting period is December 1, 2017. Registration of intent for the NYS Dept. of Health and NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene registries is completed via the Meaningful Use Registration for Public Health (MURPH) System, which is hosted on the NYS Health Commerce System (HCS) here. For those health centers looking to claim the Center for Primary Care Informatics (CPCI) as their specialized registry, please reach out to Amy Freiman at AFreiman@chcanys.org to discuss receiving a letter of engagement.
RHIO Data Exchange Incentive Program (DEIP) Deadline Approaching The NYS Dept. of Health has implemented a data exchange incentive program to help increase Health Information Exchange adoption. The program requires health centers to meet the following two milestones by September 30, 2017 in order to receive incentive dollars:
attest that a participation agreement has been signed with a qualifying entity (RHIO) on or after 10/1/16 ($2,000)
attest the ability to receive summary of care records electronically and continue data exchange for one year ($11,000 per connection)
Click here for more information on the program, including updated incentive payment amounts.
CMS Not Penalizing eClinicalWorks Customers for Meaningful Use EHR Attestations The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that in light of the eClinicalWorks (eCW) settlement, providers who used eCW software will not need to repay their incentive payments as eCW will be paying $125 million back to the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. In addition, CMS does not intend to audit eCW providers. For more information on this recent development, click here. For additional details regarding the settlement between eCW and CMS, click here.
Now Available: Attestation Deadline Extension Forms for 2016 AIU The attestation deadline for all new providers attempting to enter the NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program was May 31, 2017. If you were unable to meet the attestation deadline due to extenuating circumstances beyond your providers’ or health center’s control, you may submit an Attestation Deadline Extension (ADE) Request Form to HIT@health.ny.gov anytime between now and the June 14, 2017 deadline. Forms must be submitted by this deadline in order to be formally considered for an extension by the NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program and NYS Dept. of Health. There will be additional ADE periods for 2015 Meaningful Use (MU) and 2016 Meaningful Use (MU). If you need assistance completing the form, contact CHCANYS at HCCN@chcanys.org.
eClinicalWorks to Pay $155 Million to Settle False Claim Act Allegations On May 31, the U.S Dept. of Justice announced that a settlement had been reached in the False Claims Act lawsuit against health IT company eClinicalWorks. The Electronic Health Records vendor has agreed to pay $155 million to resolve the allegations and will also retain an Independent Software Quality Oversight Organization to assess its software quality control systems and notify users of any safety related issues. Per the settlement, eCW customers may obtain updated versions of the software free of charge and will be given the option to transfer their data to another EHR vendor without penalties or service charges. For more information, please click here and here.
RHIO Data Exchange Incentive Program (DEIP) The NYS Dept.of Health has implemented a data exchange incentive program to help increase Health Information Exchange adoption. The program requires health centers to meet two milestones in order to receive incentive dollars:
attest that a participation agreement has been signed with a qualifying entity (RHIO) on or after 10/1/16; and
attest the ability to receive summary of care records electronically AND continue data exchange for one year.
In order to receive funding, these milestones must be completed by September 30, 2017. Click here for more information on the program and the updated incentive payment amounts.
Last Day to Attest for AIU is May 31, 2017 2016 is the last year during which an eligible professional (EP) may begin participation in the Medicaid EHR incentive program. The deadline for AIU attestations is this coming Wednesday, May 31st. The State will review deadline extension requests on a case-by-case basis for seven days after the May 31st deadline. For more information on how to obtain an extension, please call the NYS Medicaid EHR Incentive Program hotline at (877) 646-5410, Option 2. For additional information, please visit the NYS EHR Incentive Program website. If you have additional questions regarding attestation or require assistance, please e-mail HCCN@chcanys.org.
RHIO Data Exchange Incentive Program (DEIP) The NYS Dept. of Health has implemented a data exchange incentive program to help increase Health Information Exchange adoption. The program requires health centers to meet two milestones in order to receive incentive dollars:|
attest that a participation agreement has been signed with a qualifying entity (RHIO) on or after 10/1/16
attest the ability to receive summary of care records electronically AND contribution of 7 out of 7 data elements.
In order to receive funding, these milestones must be completed by September 30, 2017. Please click herefor more information. Updated milestone payment amounts will be posted to the DEIP website soon. For a map of RHIOs in NY State, please click here.
Meaningful Use Group Workbook Option from NYS New York State is offering a Meaningful Use group workbook for practices that are planning to attest more than 15 providers per payment year. If you are interested in this option and have not received any correspondence from the state, please email hit@health.ny.govbefore May 2nd. In the body of the email, include the name of your practice and the payment year(s) for which you would like to use the group workbook.
For reference, the upcoming deadlines for the NYS EHR Incentive Program are as follows:
The deadline to request the MU group workbook is May 2nd, 2017
The deadline for 2016 AIU attestations is May 31st, 2017
The deadline for 2015 MU attestations is June 30th, 2017
The deadline for 2016 MU attestations is September 15th, 2017
CMS Finalizes 90-Day EHR Reporting: Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published a final rule allowing all returning providers in the EHR Incentive Program to report based on a 90-day reporting period in 2016 and 2017 instead of a full calendar year. CHCANYS is still awaiting news on the reopening of the MEIPASS/SLR attestation website. We will follow up with more information once it becomes available.
New CPCI Training Video Series Thirteen new training videos have been posted in the “Help” section of CHCANYS’ Center for Primary Care Informatics (CPCI) around various topics, including a CPCI overview, visit planning reports, a registries overview, user management, and more. Available to users from within the CPCI, the videos may be accessed by clicking on “Help” and then “Learn how to use DRVS.”
Call for Responses: DSHII Funding - PRAPARE Collaboration Oppportunities The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recently announced over $87 million in awards to support health center IT enhancements, including more than $5 million for 63 New York State FQHCs. Congratulations to the ion Opportunity awardees! If you have set aside funds in your application to collaborate with CHCANYS and other health centers in a pilot of PRAPARE (Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patient Assets, Risks, and Experiences), CPCI projects, or would like more information about these opportunities, please reach out to Amy (Tammam) Freiman. Developed by NACHC and piloted nationwide with participating FQHCs, PRAPARE is a standardized tool and process for collecting data on patient social determinants of health (SDH). Once collected in a standardize manner across health centers, this SDH data can be leveraged to develop benchmarks for demonstrating FQHC value and improving population health. Read more about PRAPARE here.
Medicaid Meaningful Use Program 2016 is the last year during which an eligible professional (EP) may begin participation in the Medicaid EHR incentive program. EPs who have not yet submitted for AIU by 2016 will not be eligible to participate in Meaningful Use or receive incentive payments in any future year. Incentive payments for eligible professionals are higher under this program – up to $63,750 over six years. For more information on reporting requirements and deadlines, click here. Please note: ePACES will no longer be required once the reconstructed MEIPASS/SLR reopens, which is expected to occur early in the 4th quarter.
New York Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Survey The NYS Dept. of Health is seeking feedback via a survey of providers that have participated in the NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. The survey focuses on remediation timelines and current methods of communication. Responses from the survey will guide the implementation of changes to reduce provider burden. The survey will be available until September 16, and may be accessed here.
HIPAA Research Studying Seeking to Interview Healthcare Workers The Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College, City University of New York is seeking frontline healthcare practitioners to participate in a 30-minute to 1-hour interview as part of a research study on HIPAA and the exchange of health information between providers and patients in New York State. Respondents will be fully anonymous in the final study and will receive $50 for participation. Research findings will inform policy suggestions for resolving HIPAA-related issues currently facing health center staff. If interested in participating, please contact Theresa Montini, Director of Research at Theresa.Montini@Hunter.CUNY.edu.
CHCANYS Receives HCCN Grant We are happy to announce that CHCANYS recently received a Notice of Award (NOA) for the next round of HCCN funding! The new 3-year funding period will begin on August 1 and the network plans to expand from 35 to 42 members. Through this grant, we will support health centers in achieving meaningful use of Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC)-certified electronic health records, adopting technology-enabled quality improvement strategies, and engaging in health information exchange to strengthen the quality of care and improve patient health outcomes. Additional information about the grant is available on HRSA’s HCCN technical assistance website.
Meaningful Use Registration for Public Health (MURPH) System Updated The Meaningful Use Registration for Public Health (MURPH) System has been updated to include additional enhancements and add Population Health Reporting (Specialized Registry). The Population Health Registry is a Specialized Registry for Eligible Professionals (EPs) who practice in NYC. For more information, click here. CHCANYS strongly encourages NYC Eps intending to submit data to the Population Health Registry to update their registration as soon as possible. EPs demonstrating Meaningful Use for the first time in 2016 will have a 90-day EHR Reporting Period and must register intent for each Public Health Meaningful Use Reporting Measure they intend to meet before or within 60 days of the start of their EHR Reporting Period.
Funding Available through HRSA’s Delivery System Health Information Investment HRSA has announced a $90,000,000 supplemental funding opportunity through the fiscal year 2016 Delivery System Health Information Investment (DSHII). Funds are designated for existing Health Center Program award recipients, and proposals must demonstrate how funding will help facilitate IT enhancements that align with strategic goals of better care, smarter spending, and healthier communities. CHCANYS encourages health centers to explore collaborative options such as CPCI participation, enhancements to support DSRIP reporting, and health information exchange. HRSA has distributed funding information to eligible health centers, and the deadline to apply is July 20. See the HRSA websitefor more information, and please watch for an email from CHCANYS with more details on collaborative opportunities.
Meaningful Use Pre-Validation Tool Eligible professionals (EPs) may now submit their Medicaid Patient Volume data prior to attesting for preliminary review. Pre-validation could potentially expedite review once the Meipass attestation website opens back up for 2015 Meaningful Use attestations. To submit a pre-validation request, please complete either the individualor group template and email it to hit@health.ny.gov.
Electronic Prescriptions Mandatory as of March 27, 2016 As of March 27, 2016, it will be mandatory for all NY State practitioners, excluding veterinarians, to issue electronic prescriptions for controlled and non-controlled substances. Utilizing modern prescription technology has the potential to minimize medication errors for patients in New York State. Additional benefits of e- prescribing include the integration of prescription records directly into the patient’s electronic medical record and reduction in prescription theft and forgery. If you have not already done so, please contact your EHR vendor to get your health center set up. More information is available here. One-year waivers may be available for economic hardship, technological limitations, and other exceptional circumstances. Waiver requests must demonstrate that the FQHC become fully compliant over a period of time, spreading the financial impact. Detailed instructions for submitting a waiver appear on page 24-60 of this document.
CHCANYS Boosts Patient Care with Visit Planning Pilot In the summer of 2015, five New York health centers affiliated with CHCANYS participated in an Azara Healthcare-led pilot project to demonstrate the positive impact the Data Reporting and Analytics Solutions (DRVS) / Center for Primary Care Informatics (CPCI) Pre-Visit Planning Report (PVP) can have on care delivery. The 12-week pilot demonstrated that the PVP improves patient care because care interventions are identified in advance of the opportunity for action: when the patient is present for the visit. The PVP helped the health centers identify patient care needs in advance of visits, ensure those needs were met during the visits, and delegate certain tasks away from the provider. Health centers also reported patients were pleased when they realized the care team had prepared for their visits. read more >>
New York Health Centers Continue to Lead HIV Fight with Data Project World AIDS Day was Dec. 1st, but the effort to improve the quality of HIV care and reduce the number of new infections is in full swing at New York health centers, CHCANYS, and Azara Healthcare. As of 2014, New York has the nation’s largest HIV population and ranks fourth among all states in the number of new HIV diagnoses1. Due to these staggering statistics, the AIDS Institute has committed to a variety of projects designed to improve both quality of HIV care and access to it. One specific initiative – HEALTHQUAL International – enables sustainable quality management programs through performance measurement, quality improvement and quality management programs. read more >>
CMS Releases Meaningful Use Final Rule On October 7, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the final rule with modifications to the Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program requirements, encompassing 2015 through 2017 (Modified Stage 2) and Stage 3. Along with confirming a continuous 90-day reporting period for 2015, unnecessary requirements have been eliminated. Those that remain have been simplified with increased flexibility focusing on interoperability, information exchange, and patient engagement. Stage 3 has been postponed from a mandatory start in 2017 to 2018. A 60-day comment period has been announced to allow additional feedback on Stage 3 proposal. Click here for more information on these changes.
CPCI to Provide All HIV-QUAL Reporting for 2015 We are very pleased to announce that all FQHCs participating in the CHCANYS-supported CPCI/Azara DRVS Reporting Platform will not be required to manually submit HIV-QUAL data this year! To read the announcement from the AIDS Institute, click here. CHCANYS, Azara and the AIDS Institute have worked closely to develop an extract that will automatically transfer data to the eHIVQUAL system for incorporation into the statewide data report. We anticipate that the CPCI will cover a large portion of HIV-QUAL reporting requirements in future years. If you are interested in activating this functionality in the CPCI, please contact Jeff Brandes at jeff.brandes@azarahealthcare.com. There is a charge for the mapping of additional EHR data to produce the required measures.
Can Electronic Health Records Systems Support New Payment Methods for Health Centers? A new report from the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative suggests that EHRs need to be tailored to better capture the unique range of health center services, and that workflow changes may also be needed to ensure that essential information is recorded. The study was co-authored by Dr. Peter Shin and colleagues from CHCANYS and the Foundation.
The report assesses the feasibility and usefulness of combining electronic health record (EHR) data with federal cost report data as the basis for quantifying enabling services and developing or evaluating reimbursement rates for community health centers. Based on a pilot study in two community health centers, the study indicates that such data fall short of providing the information needed to reasonably develop new value-based rate setting approaches or evaluate existing cost-based rates.
CMS Issues Final Rule on Options for Use of Certified EHR Technology for Meaningful Use in Program Year 2014 CMS has released a final rule allowing providers participating in the EHR Incentive Programs to use the 2011 Edition of certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT) for calendar and fiscal year 2014. The rule also finalizes CMS and ONC’s recommended timeline to extend Stage 2 through 2016. The earliest a provider can participate in Stage 3 of meaningful use is now 2017.
The rule grants flexibility to providers who are unable to fully implement 2014 Edition CEHRT for an EHR reporting period in 2014 due to delays in 2014 CEHRT availability. Providers may now use EHRs that have been certified under the 2011 Edition, a combination of the 2011 and 2014 Editions, or the 2014 Edition for 2014 participation. Under the rule, providers are able to use 2011 Edition CEHRT, and have the option to attest to the 2013 Stage 1 meaningful use objectives and the 2013 definition CQMs. Beginning in 2015, all eligible providers will be required to report using 2014 Edition CEHRT.
To help the public understand the final rule’s changes to 2014 participation, CMS has developed the following resources:
CEHRT Interactive Decision Tool – providers answer a few questions about their current stage of meaningful use and Edition of EHR certification, and the tool displays the corresponding 2014 options.
2014 CEHRT Rule Quick Guide – guide provides corresponding resources based on the option a provider chooses to participate in the EHR Incentive Programs in 2014.
