Meaningful mock audit: Better now than later
Did you attest to MU2 on July 1? Let us know.
CliniSync now live on national eHealth Exchange
Welcome to the CliniSync Community!
Why join CliniSync if you don't care about meaningful use?
Sharing is healthy: Columbus Dispatch editorial
Support troops & families through TRICARE
News from CMS Free policy course offered by HPIO

Meaningful mock audit: Better now than later

When it comes to federal meaningful use requirements, it’s better to conduct a mock audit and feel the pain now, rather than later.

That’s the advice of Scott Mash and Cathy Costello, meaningful use experts at the Ohio Health Information Partnership who work with hospitals and doctors to walk them through the stages of a potential audit.

“It’s no longer whether you’ll be audited, it’s just a matter of when,” Mash says. At least 25 hospitals have contracted with The Partnership through the CliniSyncPLUS program, which supports hospitals and physicians with meaningful use. 

Read the full story here.  

Did you attest to MU2 on July 1? Let us know.

We've worked with at least one hospital in Ohio (S-h-h-h) that attested to Meaningful Use Stage 2  on July 1, which is rare in the nation. Thus far, various sources citing CMS say there are only 100 hospitals and close to 1,000 physicians nationally who have attested to MU2.  If you are a hospital or physician who has reached Meaningful Use Stage 2, please contact Dottie Howe at dhowe@ohiponline.org or call me at 614-664-2605. We'd like to hear from you to recognize you!
Source of Data: HealthCare IT News 
                          eHealthPolitico

CliniSync now live on national eHealth Exchange

We're pleased to announce that CliniSync is live on the national Healtheway eHealth Exchange, meaning providers in Ohio who join our health information exchange will be able to electronically communicate with other eHealth Exchange members across the nation. We received our certification in late June. 

Welcome to the CliniSync Community!

We're excited to have 36 new facilities and practices join the CliniSync exchange. CliniSync doesn't charge to connect, and many hospitals and practices will be sharing transitions of care documents as patients move from one setting to another. Other practices are interested in connecting to their colleagues who are caring for the same patient, such as primary care to specialist and vice versa.

The number of hospitals now live on CliniSync is: 51 Welcome to Blanchard Valley Hospital and Bluffton Hospital, both part of the Blanchard Valley Health System.  

As of today, our latest statistics on contracted physicians and practices are:                             
Total # of Practices: 445   
Total # of Physicians: 2,628
 
The number of those live on the CliniSync HIE are:
Total # of Practices: 195
Total # of Physicians: 1,507

If you'd like to have a CliniSync representative contact you, just register here and we'll get the physician liaison in your area to call you.

New Practices and Facilities

Altercare of Ohio in North Canton
Anna Maria of Aurora
Avon Oaks Nursing Home
Bone Joint & Spine Surgeons in Toledo
Bradley Bay Health Center in Bay Village
Briggs Rd Medical Center in Columbus
Cascades Women's Health in Findlay
Center Ridge Health Campus in North Ridgeville
Colonial Manor Health Care Center in Loudonville
Consumer Advocacy Model (CAM) at Wright State University in Dayton
Country Court Skilled Nursing & Rehab Center in Mount Vernon
Hattie Larlham Center for Children with Disabilities in Mantua
Hilliard Family Medicine
Jump Start Primary Care & Sports Medicine in Bowling Green
Keystone Pointe Health & Rehabilitation in LaGrange
Kids First Pediatrics in Canfield
Kingston of Ashland 
Kingston of Vermilion 
Lakewood Senior Health Campus in Lakewood
Life Care Center of Elyria              
Lorain County Health & Dentistry                  
Massillon Family Care
Ohio Eastern Star Home in Mount Vernon
Pediatric Associates in Solon
Poland Medical Center
Riverside Nephrology Associates in Columbus
Riverview Pointe Care Center in Olmstead Falls
Southern Hills Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Middleburg Heights
St. Mary of the Woods in Avon
St. Marys Surgical Association in St. Marys
Susan Magness Carver, MD in Coshocton
The Laurels of Mt. Vernon
Wellington Place in North Olmstead
Wesleyan Village in Elyria
West Side Deutscher Frauen Verein/Altenheim in Strongsville
Youngstown Internal Medicine

Why join CliniSync if you don't care about meaningful use?

It's all about transitions of care. You need to communicate with your local hospitals -- and even some not so local -- so you can get a better, more accurate and timely picture of your patient's health.

Don't you want to know if your patient has been hospitalized with an automatic alert so you can follow up?

Wouldn't an electronic summary of care after discharge allow you to immediately see next steps you need to take?

Do you realize you'll receive Medicare reimbursement for those follow-up visits?

How about being in the know when other physicians and specialists are prescribing medications for your patient?

If you want to see the benefits of CliniSync, read this fact sheet. 

Sharing is healthy: Statistics from hospitals sharing records show Ohio on right track

Here's an excerpt from a Columbus Dispatch editorial comparing the expense of New York's health information exchange with Ohio's. It also clearly outlines the benefits of exchanging health information. Read the full editorial here. 

Ohio’s partnership was co-founded by the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Medical Association, the Ohio Osteopathic Association, the state government and others. It and a similar organization, the Cincinnati-based HealthBridge, have helped link enough hospitals, physicians and other Ohio health-care providers to electronic-records systems to garner more than $976 million in incentive payments.

But the greatest payoff will be in better service from Ohio health-care providers and more-efficient use of stretched health-care dollars.

Federal grants of about $42 million funded the partnership’s efforts to design and build a network for health-care providers and to help them learn how to use it.

From this point, Ohio officials expect user fees to pay for the system. Compared with the $900 million in federal and state money that has gone into New York’s system, and another $65 million from New York’s state government that’s budgeted for this year, that’s a remarkable bargain.

Support troops & families through TRICARE 

Would you like to take a flight on a Chinook helicopter and enjoy a short visit with the Ohio National Guard? Lt. Col. Kathryn Lowrey of the Ohio National Guard is seeking nominations from providers and other individuals involved in health care to participate in this fun activity on September 11 and learn about what's happening with TRICARE. Here's where you can learn more about it: http://ong.ohio.gov/TRICARE.html

The Lt. Col. visited the Ohio Health Information Partnership to give us and the physician and medical associations who are our partners the most up-to-date news on how our troops and their families are cared for as well as the difference between benefits for the Ohio National Guard, which are different from those for veterans. She's seeking as much participation and input from providers as possible. Please feel free to contact her at kathryn.l.lowrey.mil@mail.mil if you are interested in participation and outreach.

News from CMS

• Please read our comments to CMS on the proposed MU2 rule change 
• Review new and updated FAQs on PQRS reporting on the CMS website here
• New grantees announced here for innovation grants
• Read article about new CMS Interactive Tool that helps providers understand CEHRT proposed rule
• Learn about changes on the record and chart vital signs reporting here for Stage 1 and Stage 2. For information about other meaningful use measures, visit the CMS Meaningful Use webpage

Free policy course offered by HPIO/OSU

The Health Policy Institute of Ohio, with support from the Ohio State University Center for Public Health Practice, has created an online training course titled “Ohio Policymaking Basics.”

The self-study course was created by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio with guidance from its Ohio Wellness and Prevention Network. The course is designed to introduce prevention professionals to policy change and advocacy by addressing the following questions:

• Why is policy change important for improving health?
• What is public policy and how does it get made?
• What is advocacy and who can advocate for policy change?

The course has been approved for one contact hour of continuing education credit for Nursing, Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES), Registered Sanitarian (RS) and Certified Public Health (CPH) professionals. The completion of an online quiz and evaluation are required to complete this course and to receive continuing education credit and/or a certificate of completion. The course if free, but registration is required.