News Briefs: Practice Management Updates

This roundup includes the following brief practice management updates:

Massachusetts clinicians lead the nation in electronic prescribing, says Surescripts, the nation's largest e-prescribing network. The company announced the top 10 e-prescribing states at a recent press conference highlighting its fourth annual Safe-Rx Awards.

According to the results of a nationwide audit of electronic prescriptions that were routed in 2008, Massachusetts clinicians transmitted more than 6.7 million e-prescriptions. That figure represented 20.5 percent of all new or refilled prescriptions in the state for that year, a significant jump from the 2.3 percent of all prescriptions transmitted in 2005 that were routed electronically.

Rhode Island came in second, with a 17 percent e-prescribing rate in 2008.

According to a June 22 Surescripts press release, two other states -- Pennsylvania and Maine -- made their first appearance on the top 10 list. A new category honored the five "most improved" e-prescribing states: Vermont, Tennessee, Kansas, Illinois and Missouri.

Surescripts also honored six physicians as e-prescribers of the year. Three of them, Steven Green, M.D., of Lancaster, Ky.; Michael Brewer, M.D., of Springfield, Ill.; and Mark Earhart, M.D., of Watkinsville, Ga., are AAFP members.

HHS' Health Information Technology Policy Committee met recently to begin the process of defining the term "meaningful use" as it relates to use of electronic health records, or EHRs.

In an HHS news release, David Blumenthal, M.D., HHS' National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said, "The work of the policy committee is a first step toward assuring that technology -- the electronic health record -- is used in a meaningful way to provide better patient care."

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides incentive payments to eligible health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of a certified EHR.

Interested stakeholders are invited to read materials from the policy committee's June 16 meeting and comment on the committee's recommendations through June 26.

CMS is reminding physicians that a new half-year reporting period for the 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI, begins on July 1.

Physicians and other eligible health professionals can earn a bonus equal to 2 percent of their Medicare physician fee schedule billings for the reporting period -- be it six months or the full year.

Check the PQRI page on CMS' Web site for more details about 2009 PQRI participation. Click on the "Spotlight" link on the left side of the page to see the latest PQRI updates.