Rockville, MD

DrFirst announced today that the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) has chosen to partner with DrFirst to offer their award-winning and certified solutions to Hispanic physicians. As the Hispanic medical community’s most visible advocate, the NHMA is stepping in to help close “the digital divide” that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health (ONC) warns is preventing providers who treat minority patients from participating in various government health care IT initiatives. NHMA members will now have access to the clinical and financial benefits of health care technology with DrFirst’s cost-effective e-prescribing, Meaningful Use, and patient medication adherence programs.

The NHMA is taking the lead to drive health care IT adoption rates among Hispanic providers. Many NHMA members are small practice physicians who treat a growing number of under-served Medicaid, Medicare, and uninsured patients. Often unaffiliated with major institutions, these doctors find it difficult to participate in federally-sponsored incentive programs which are intended to award providers up to $63,750 to help offset the cost of adopting healthcare IT. Traditional HIT applications require start-up costs that often put participation out of reach, leaving NHMA members and their patients without access to the benefits of “meaningful use” solutions.

“Given health care reform legislation and the clear paradigm shift to technology-driven patient care, there is an urgent need to educate more Hispanic physicians about what is required and to bring them into the 21st century of medicine. Ultimately, this can help our members better serve their minority patients who have higher rates of certain chronic conditions that we believe wider adoption of technology can help lower,” said Dr. Elena V. Rios, NHMA President & CEO.

She continued, “Working with DrFirst, the NHMA feels very confident about achieving this. DrFirst has a demonstrated record of helping doctors with limited funding and technology experience successfully adopt e-prescribing, Meaningful Use solutions, and other health care technology into their practices.”

DrFirst’s established reputation in this arena is attributed in part to solutions that are realistically priced and scalable for any medical practice. DrFirst solutions are created by doctors, for doctors, and designed for quick implementation with minimal training and little or no investment in additional IT infrastructure. Several of these cost-effective solutions are now available to NHMA member providers, including:

Rcopia™ Classic e-prescribing and patient medication history solution: qualifies NHMA members for e-prescribing and physician quality reporting incentives; members avoid the MIPPA penalties coming in June 2011.
RcopiaMU™ Meaningful Use solution: qualifies NHMA members for up to $21K in Meaningful Use incentive money this year; up to $63,750 total over the next four years.
Patient Medication Adherence tools: a portfolio of affordable, quick to deploy tools that send medication reminders, coach patients, and provide other bilingual patient education resources that improve patient medication adherence. This is a pressing issue for NHMA providers who treat a growing number of patients who struggle with chronic disease.
DrFirst Financial: financing programs which allow providers to avoid upcoming MIPPA penalties, qualify for ARRA incentives, and retain capital for other expenditures.
“The timing could not be better for the NHMA to take the initiative in driving health care technology adoption among Hispanic providers. We look forward to working closely with the NHMA to help their members and patients reap the benefits of e-prescribing, Meaningful Use, and other health care technologies,” stated G. Cameron Deemer, DrFirst President.

NHMA members are encouraged to contact NHMA at sclassen@nhmamd.org or rschaeffer@drfirst.com to learn how DrFirst solutions can help them earn e-prescribing and Meaningful Use incentives this year, and avoid upcoming June MIPPA penalties for failure to e-prescribe.

About the NHMA
Established in 1994 in Washington, DC, the National Hispanic Medical Association is a non-profit association representing the interests of 45,000 licensed Hispanic physicians in the United States. The vision of the organization is to be the national leader to improve the health of Hispanic populations. The mission of the organization is to empower Hispanic physicians to lead efforts to improve the health of Hispanic populations in collaboration with the state, regional, and local level Hispanic medical societies; resident and medical student organizations; and other public and private sector partners. As a rapidly growing national resource based in the nation’s capital, NHMA provides policymakers and health care providers with expert information and support in strengthening health service delivery to Hispanic communities across the nation.