Jeff Blankinship, CEO of Surgical Notes and a member of the ASC Association’s task force on healthcare IT, discusses the guidelines and why ASCs may have been excluded.
Q: HHS recently released its criteria for meaningful use but failed to include ASCs. Could you explain why they have been excluded?
Jeff Blankinship: A bit of clarification is in order for this question. When Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last spring, ASCs were not included in the program that provides Medicare and Medicaid payment increases to physicians and hospitals that adopt a qualifying EHR and then payment reductions to physicians and hospitals that fail to adopt qualifying EHRs. The proposed rules released by CMS and HHS the last week of December simply elucidated what type of EHR use qualifies physicians and hospitals to these payment adjustments. Thus, it wasn’t HHS but rather Congress that excluded ASCs from the incentive/penalty program.
Q: So are ASCs completely shut out from receiving these funds, then?
JB: Under the ARRA, ASCs are not subject to the payment incentive and penalty program for the adoption of EHRs. The ARRA, however, also gives money to the states to use to foster the increased use of healthcare IT. Due to the lobbying efforts of the ASC Association, ASCs are part of this program. The details of the program and how exactly the states will spend the money remains to be fully worked out, but at least ASCs have their foot in the door.
Q: What is the effect on ASCs from being excluded, at least from the federal program?
JB: Hospitals are adopting EHRs and being paid to do so. ASCs are adopting healthcare IT but are not receiving any incentive to do so. There is also a risk that if the incentive and penalty program is expanded to cover ASCs in the future that the standards that are set with regard to what qualifies as acceptable use of an EHR will not be established with the unique qualities of ASCs in mind.
Q: Is there anything ASCs can do to improve their chances of receiving state ARRA funds?
JB: ASCs can become more involved. Too often ASCs are not considered as relevant by policymakers out of lack of awareness. The ASC community needs to raise awareness by becoming more involved in our state and national ASC associations. The ASC community needs to raise awareness of itself. We have taken great strides but there is much to be done. Policymakers need to understand the vital role that ASCs play in American healthcare and that policies should not be made without them in mind. The only way that this will happen is if the ASC community, those that work at ASCs and those that provide services to ASCs, stand up and demand to be counted.
The task force is a proactive effort to ensure that health IT policies are made with ASCs in mind. The task force is made up of IT vendors and ASCs and is designed to provide the federal government resources it needs to understand how healthcare IT relates to ASCs.
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