Washington and Idaho Regional Extension Center: Job Shadow Program Peggy Evans, PhD, CPHIT WIREC Director John Hartgraves WIREC Technical Manager Bellevue College – Program for Dislocated IT Workers June 8, 2010
Objectives Give general overview of the Regional Extension Center program Describe WIREC delivery model Discuss Job Shadow program
Feb, 2009 – American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is signed by the President –Under ARRA, Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act includes provisions for “meaningful use of health information technology” –HITECH authorizes incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid to providers who demonstrate “meaningful use” of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) starting in –At same time, providers must demonstrate “meaningful use” by 2015 or be subjected to financial penalties under Medicare. General Overview
Difficulty reaching Meaningful Use without technical assistance help Technical assistance help is typically costly REC program was developed to fill this gap Why Regional Extension Centers?
The Regional Extension Center Program 644 M distributed to 60 RECs to provide boots-on-the-ground EHR technical assistance and education with focus on MU One REC program per “region” – no overlaps Qualis Health awarded the Washington and Idaho REC
Nationally Targeted REC Populations: Solo and small group primary care practices (< 10 providers) Public and Critical Access Hospitals to the extent that they have affiliated primary care physician practices Community Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics Other settings: uninsured, underinsured, medically underserved populations
Interim Final Regulations released on December 31, 2009 Public Commentary Period ended on March 15, 2010 Final Rules – Sometime in the Spring, June 2010? 25 measures related to MU (and that’s just stage 1) Meaningful Use – Stage 1
What is Meaningful Use? Computerized Order Entry Drug-Drug; Drug-Allergy; Drug- Formulary checks ePrescribing Active Medication List Med reconciliation Active Med Allergy List Problem List: ICD-9 or SNOMED Record Demographics Record Vital Signs Record Smoking Status Clinical Laboratory Results Lists of Pts by condition Report quality to CMS Send reminders to Pts Clinical decision support tools Check insurance eligibility Submit claims electronically Pt copy of health info Pt access to health info Pt clinical visit summaries Exchange key data set Transition of care summary Submit data to immunization registry Protect Health Information Privacy Submit data for syndromic surveillance
Medicare/Medicaid Incentive Funding: What’s Driving Interest in Attaining MU?
Incentives for IT Adoption Medicare: $23B, –$44K per provider over 5 years starting in 2011 Medicaid: $21B –About $64K per provider over 6 years starting in 2011 What about Penalties? –Start in 2015, Medicare penalties up to 3% of provider fee schedule
WIREC Service Delivery Model Computer-Smashing Prevention
WIREC Program and Services On-the-ground IT coaches providing direct technical assistance –Focus depends on stage of EHR adoption –EHR selection for practices beginning the process –EHR implementation support for practices that have selected an EHR –Successful utilization of EHR and achieving “meaningful use” for practices already live
Types of Direct Technical Assistance : Vendor-neutral EHR selection and project planning Assistance with upgrades and new features Workflow redesign Project management Privacy and Security Functional health information exchange Tracking of attaining meaningful use milestones
Maintaining a Learning Network Broad Education –Teleconferences, workshops, regional meetings –Guidance to navigate the updates and evolution of meaningful use Establishing and maintaining networked IT communities to share learning (peer-to-peer) –Regional EHR Group Purchase –Communities of Practice (EHR vendor specific user groups) Collaborate with other REC programs through National Learning Consortium
Job Shadow Program Unpaid internship “Shadow” Health IT Consultants currently on the job Understand the changes that are underway in Health IT and healthcare generally Consider how you might fit into the new Health IT landscape 6 week program, hours a week
Job Shadow Program – How do you sign up? Submit resume to Bellevue College E- Collaboration Manager Bellevue College and WIREC working together on this program Start date: Within next few weeks
Questions?