What is Meaningful Use?
Watch our 5-minute overview on Meaningful Use
What is "Meaningful Use"? The 2009 HITECH Act made physicians eligible to receive up to $44,000 in total incentives from Medicare for "Meaningful Use" of a certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) starting in 2011. (Note: Physicians reimbursed by Medicaid can receive up to $63,750 starting in 2011 based on state-defined guidelines.)
Medicaid payments have been coming in for some time and beginning in late May our first physician clients began receiving their year one Medicare Meaningful Use checks for up to $18,000. You can read on our blog about the first athenahealth client to get paid and can read about other clients successfully attesting in the case studies to the right. These payments represent the first step in the validation and fulfillment of athenahealth's Federal Stimulus Bonus Payment Guarantee Program, unique in the industry for guaranteeing federal Meaningful Use incentive payments, not just Meaningful Use certification. As Meaningful Use progresses through Stages 2 and 3, our clients know we'll be staying on top of requirements and helping ensure that they stay compliant and receive all available incentives.
Our Meaningful Use Payment Guarantee**
Watch our 3-minute Guarantee overview
As our clients attest and get paid for Meaningful Use, we are fulfilling the promise we made under our Federal Bonus Incentive Guarantee Program. Unlike vendors that can at most guarantee that their software is Meaningful Use certified, we are unique in the industry for guaranteeing our clients their Meaningful Use payments of up to $18,000 in year one. Eligible physicians who sign up and do their part to meet Meaningful Use measures are guaranteed to receive their payment in year one of the program. How can we do this? See our Support Plan to find out how we combine cloud-based software, networked knowledge and hands-on service to get our clients paid and fulfill our Guarantee.
* As a service-based EHR, our monthly fee is the only payment we receive from our clients for our EHR. If you don't receive the Federal Stimulus reimbursement dollars for the first year you qualify, we will credit you 100% of your EHR service fees for up to six months until you do. This offer applies to Medicare HITECH Act reimbursement payments only. Additional terms, conditions, and limitations apply. Talk to an athenahealth representative to learn more. For more specifics about our guarantee, read our Frequently Asked Questions.
This is How We Make Meaningful Use Easy for You
Watch Mount Auburn Hospital achieve Meaningful Use with athenahealth
At athenahealth, we're so committed to your success in achieving Meaningful Use that we guarantee your incentive payments. And we aim to make the entire process as easy as possible, so you can focus on patient care. Our proven combination of award-winning software, networked knowledge and back-office work helps you tackle Meaningful Use like no traditional EHR can. It's how—and why—we can guarantee your payments.
We have teams of experts devoted to helping you meet your Meaningful Use measures: They integrate measures directly into your patient workflow, track provider performance against every measure, and even deliver free performance coaching. Your providers follow a smooth workflow, meet the measures and get paid.
athenahealth is with you every step of the way, from implementation through attestation, and we even attest on your behalf. With every quality measure built directly into our lean, 5-Stage Patient Visit, you can satisfy each one, from check-in through encounter to check-out, with as little additional effort as possible. And our online Meaningful Use Resource Center is available in case you need guidance along the way.
Want to know more? Here's how we do it, step by step:
#1 Best in KLAS*, cloud-based EHR software
Since our athenaClinicals EHR service exists online, in the cloud, our teams can update it continuously, providing a single, current version for the more than 31,000 providers on our network. All Meaningful Use quality measures have been built directly into the patient workflow; each measure appears automatically as the visit progresses, causing no slow-downs along the way.
And because the network is updated regularly, providers can stay on top of future stages of Meaningful Use requirements, as well as other Pay-For-Performance incentive opportunities.
*2011 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services report for ambulatory EMR (11-75 Physicians).
Networked knowledge and expertise
Using our exclusive Quality Management EngineSM, the athenahealth Clinical Intelligence Team has built all 44 Meaningful Use measures into ideal points within the patient workflow. That level of careful analysis allows providers and staff to satisfy each measure with minimal effort and without being slowed down during the patient exam.
But we don't stop there in optimizing your clinical workflow. Our Clinical Performance Specialists utilize our cloud-based network to track the progress of every provider—collecting data by size, region, specialty and more—and culling best practices from across the network. They then use that data to identify opportunities to further improve patient workflow for greater ease.
Back-office services
To ensure a simplified Meaningful Use process for you, our hard-working teams take registering and attesting for Meaningful Use off your hands. They get eligible providers registered with CMS and attest on your behalf, by hand, when measures have been achieved and you're ready to get paid. In fact, through our network, we monitor exactly the right number and combination of menu measures, and notify you when it's time to attest.
Along the way, athenahealth account managers monitor your performance. They'll proactively contact you to review your progress, address any issues that need attention, and coach your providers to stay on track and cross the finish line. And, of course, you'll have complete access to your own data as well. The Quality Management Report gives you patient-level detail on how well you're satisfying measures, and where improvements can be made.
We believe this combination of services—and the people behind them—are what makes athenahealth an industry leader in helping providers achieve Meaningful Use success. We make it easy so you can concentrate on patient care while reaping the rewards you deserve.
