If you haven’t begun the process of selecting and implementing an EHR, Meaningful Use may not be something with which to concern yourself. The reason, you probably will not be done in time to collect the incentive money. How can I state that with such assurance? One of my clients has already implemented EHR and CPOE—already done the heavy lifting—and they will have to divert most of their resources just to meet the Stage 1 requirements.
If you haven’t begun, there may be no rush to acquire a vendor, although the vendors will not tell you that. Rushing may lead to a bad selection. Don’t cost yourself tens of millions get to have a chance at a few. By the way, did any of the vendors with whom you are speaking mention that they have no clue if their system will meet any of the Stage 2 and 3 requirements? Right now, it’s like the vendors are selling cars without knowing whether it will need to run on gas or Hydrogen.
I think the Meaningful Use dates will be pushed back. Why? Because few if any of the providers will be in a position to apply for the incentive money. Washington created a $40 billion lottery and they are having trouble finding anyone able to purchase tickets.
Now for those whose EHR implementation is well underway or up and running — should you try for the incentive money? That’s a valid question. Just because someone is offering you a check doesn’t mean you have to take the money. Here are some questions you ought to be able to answer prior to deciding if Meaningful Use is meaningful to you.
- Meeting MU requires a shift in your direction; you take on the MU tasks and sacrifice some of what you were going to do
- What are those tasks, what resources will they consume
- What year is the best year for you to meet MU; 2011-2015?
- Did you know you can still maximize incentive dollars if you pass MU in 2013?
- That gives you very little time to react to Stage 2 & 3 requirements
Meaningful Use is a binary contest — you make it or you don’t. The decision to meet Meaningful Use does not have to be binary. There is no way to collect for meeting 90 percent of the requirements. How might you financially calculate the probability of obtaining the incentives? Let’s begin with Stage 1—the easy one.
- Calculate the maximum incentive you could receive
- Multiply that figure by the degree of certainty you have that your plan will be completed on time — a number less than 1
- Then multiply it by the probability you think exists for passing the audit, another number less than 1
- Calculate your cost to complete Stage 1, then figure out your ROI — not much is it? I’ve seen one provider whose ROI is negative.
- This makes evaluating Stage 2 & 3 calculations seem rather superficial. Want my advice for calculating an ROI out of requirements that don’t exist? I’d use a placeholder of six zeros preceded by a number greater than five for each Stage.
So take time to evaluate your options. The only people who will look foolish are those who don’t know what questions to ask.
Marc Holland says
Paul — Well thought and well said; I couldn’t agree more — in fact, I already did, even before I read your posting. Ironically, your post trailed mine by about an hour or so today. I first read it as I was composing my reply to Anthony Guerra’s comments to my own. I won’t repeat my comments here, but would point you, and other readers to them. Thanks for such great insights. They are right on target.
Paul Roemer says
Thanks for the kind words Marc.