'Basic Training' on Meaningful Use of EHRs Coming Soon Via Free Webinar

The AAFP's top two health information technology experts, Steven Waldren, M.D., director of the AAFP's Center for Health IT, and Jason Mitchell, M.D., assistant director of the center, are co-hosting a free Sept. 5 webinar discussion about meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs).

The one-hour webinar, Meaningful Use Now (Stage 1) and the Future (Stage 2), also will include a CMS regulatory affairs expert who was involved in writing the rule.

The webinar begins at 1 p.m. CDT and is available free to all AAFP members.

Waldren and Mitchell plan to focus on the basic details physicians need to know to enable them to earn bonus payments from the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive programs.

The webinar will be offered via the TransforMED Delta-Exchange network. AAFP members who are not signed up for their free Delta-Exchange network memberships can do so before the webinar.

The upcoming webinar is timely because HHS recently announced the release of the final rule for meaningful use stage two. According to an Aug. 23 HHS press release, meaningful use stage two will go into effect as early as Jan. 1, 2014.

Physicians actively involved with meaningful use stage one began receiving bonus checks early in 2011 for meeting requirements for that program.

"Physicians who participate in the webinar will hear an expert summary of a very complicated new regulation," said Mitchell. He noted that the stage two rule is hundreds of pages long and said the webinar is designed to help physicians digest what they need to know as quickly as possible.

Bottom line, it's all about saving members time, said Mitchell.

"We will provide an explanation of key elements of meaningful use that will make the most difference and that carry the most importance for family physicians' practices," he added.