Is your Vendor a True “Partner” when it comes to ARRA?

Healthcare News | August 2, 2009

Healthcare organizations have been anticipating clarification on “Meaningful Use” ever since Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in February 2009. The precise definition is the key to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursement funds for implementing and utilizing electronic health records (EHR).

Meaningful Use guidelines were issued in June and updated in July, but the final rule isn’t scheduled for release until the end of this year. We recognize, however, the significant opportunity ARRA represents, and as your long-term partner, Siemens wants to help you now to secure your Healthcare IT investment:

• Secure the value of your investment
• Secure the knowledge of your healthcare professionals
• Secure results for your organization

In addition to offering the ARRA webcast series and educational sessions, we’re working hard to help our customers meet CMS criteria. Read on for a summary of three key areas of focus.

1) Committee Participation
Although the Meaningful Use Guidelines and Meaningful Use Matrix were released on June 16 and updated on July 16, the final rule will not be issued until the end of December. In the meantime, Siemens is taking an active, leadership role on behalf of our customers to shape industry policies and standards.

In the coming months, various committees are meeting to identify standards and make decisions that will ultimately affect how the EHR will be implemented and applied at our customer facilities. As such, two members of Siemens senior management, Charlene Underwood and Don Bechtel, volunteered to represent our customers and the greater vendor community in two of the subcommittee workgroups.

“It is an honor to represent Siemens customers,” says Underwood, director of Government & Industry Affairs for Health Services at Siemens and member of the Meaningful Use Workgroup, a subcommittee of the HIT Policy Committee. “My role is to advocate for the industry — bringing my perspective on what our customers can implement and what vendors can accomplish.”

Bechtel, senior key expert at Siemens and member of the Clinical Operations Workgroup — a subcommittee of HIT Standards Committee — will act in a similar role by helping identify the standards and interoperability specifications that will be adopted for EHR use.

2) HIS Certification across all three Siemens HIS
In order to receive CMS reimbursement funds, healthcare organizations must prove they are “Meaningful Users” of EHRs and utilizing a certified EHR. As of July 2009, Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) is undergoing several changes and the definition of ‘certification’ with respect to ARRA remains unclear. There is a plan for clear separation between criteria required to address meaningful use (to be defined by governmental agencies), and third parties that validate software such as CCHIT. There is also indication from the HIT Policy Committee (HITPC) certification/adoption workgroup that there should be multiple validation agencies, not just CCHIT.

Siemens Soarian® Clinicals V2.0C5, INVISION® Clinicals V27.0, and MedSeries4® Clinical Suite V28.10 are all certified through 2010. Siemens is committed to ensuring that any customer who intends to seek stimulus money will be enabled to do so through their Siemens solutions.

3) EHR Assessment
Because “Meaningful Use” is still a relatively new concept, many Siemens customers are wondering where they stand in meeting the criteria and what should be done in the coming months to prepare. Now there’s help — thanks to a complimentary EHR Assessment from Siemens.

After a thorough evaluation of the current environment, a Siemens field representative will work with each customer and define recommendations and a formal roadmap to achieving an EHR and meaningful use — maximizing the readiness of the Siemens customer to obtain CMS reimbursement.

Siemens will continue offering customers valuable information and assistance in the coming months in preparation for the ARRA incentive payments that will begin in 2011. For more information about current and future ARRA initiatives visit www.siemens.com/executivegateway.