Tom Sullivan, M.D.
The Stick is Coming! But it's Easy to Avoid the Penalties!
If you aren’t familiar with the federal government’s eRX Incentive Program, aka MIPPA, it offers eligible physicians a nice carrot to switch to e-prescribing – extra funds equaling up to 2% of their yearly Medicare Part B billing claims.
But the time of rewards and no punishment is drawing to a close! Physicians need to be made aware that there is a “stick” that comes with the program and it’s coming soon. Starting in 2012, some doctors will see a payment reduction instead. And they have just a few months this year to do something about it: deploy an e-prescribing solution and submit at least 10 electronic prescriptions by June 30th, 2011.
Group practices reporting as GRPO I or GRPO II practices have to demonstrate all prescriptions were electronically submitted in this time period.
Otherwise, physicians are looking at a 1% Medicare Part B payment reduction in 2012; 1.5% in 2013; and 2% in 2014 and beyond, unless they demonstrate one of two “hardship” factors – that they practice in a rural area without sufficient high speed Internet access, or without available pharmacies to process e-prescriptions.
But there is no need to worry. DrFirst’s Rcopia e-prescribing solution meets the MIPPA requirements and costs just $2 a day. If you do not currently use a fully certified EHR and are looking for an even greater return on investment, consider Rcopia-MU (Meaningful Use). It meets all requirements for MIPPA, PQRI and ARRA and costs less than $7 a day.
Do the math – if you bill a considerable amount in Medicare Part B claims, the incentive money you can get from e-prescribing can be up to 8x times as much – or more – than the cost to deploy a DrFirst e-prescribing solution. This represents a low cost, low risk investment in the most widely supported and utilized functionality of modern clinical information technology.
Remember, the window for 2012 closes on June 30th, 2011 to document e-prescribing use to avoid the penalties and get the incentive payments instead. Find out how DrFirst can get you there by contacting us at sales@drfirst.com
About Tom Sullivan, M.D.
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Thomas E. Sullivan, M.D is a board-certified specialist in cardiology and internal medicine with over 40 years of clinical practice. He currently works for DrFirst and sees patients part-time in Massachusetts. His expertise in the application of information technology to health care has helped to create an international standard (ASTM) for the exchange of medical record information called the Continuity of Care Record (CCR). With AMA, he was founding chair of their e-Medicine Advisory Committee, worked with the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, represented the AMA and helped create the Physician EHR Coalition and is past chair of the AMA Council on Medical Service.