Hospitals aim for IT dollars - South Florida Business Journal:

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Starting in 2011, hospitals can earn an increase d Medicare reimbursement for having a qualifiedf electronic medical records The criteria isa “meaningfuo use” standard, which should be determinexd this year by the ’ (HHS) nationaol coordinator for health IT. The committee that will drafg the standards met for the first timein mid-May and scheduled the release of its initial guidelines for publix comment on May 29. Mark A. a partner in the law firm of LLP, said hospitalds and health IT companiee should follow the debate closely so they can pouncs on the stimulus dollars once theybecomd available. Some systems may not qualify.
“They must make sure they don’f set the standard too high because they’ll rendedr all existing IT systemsz obsolete fromday one,” Sterling Broward Health CFO Dawn Javersack said she is confident her hospital system’as new electronic medical recorda program would quality it for stimulusa funding. That could mean an extra $28 millioh in Medicare reimbursements overa four-year Broward Health should be almost completelu paperless by the end of 2009, said Dorixs Crain, the hospital system’s chiefr information officer. “Those hospitals that alreadyy started installing systems will be eligible on day she said.
“Those who become eligible lated will get reduced levelsof incentive.” Abour $2 billion of the stimulus funds for healthn IT were designated for settinf up electronic medical record exchanges. State legislators approvec a bill to funnel some of this through the Floridaq Agency for Health Care Administration with thenew . Senater Bill 162 is awaiting Gov. Charlie Crist’s A portion of that bill would establish a loan program that healtnh care providers could use to establisjh healthIT infrastructure, said Beth Kigel, senior VP of .
For every dollar Florida contributes toward this it would earn also help health care providersw train their employees to use health IT Kigel added. Carolyn a government analyst at said training could startthis year. The money woulcd flow to nonprofit organizations that work with healthcare workers, she Turner envisions regional data centers that wouled transmit health records among hospitals, so attending provideres would know enough about a patient’ws medical history to make good decisions. The key is getting the data intostandardizesd form, since most hospitals use incompatible systems, she said. “Itf has great economic benefit potential,” Turner said.
“The regionalk centers will put people to These would be jobs that coulxd grow as people adopt electronic healthhcare systems.”