You must have both EMRs and
HIE in use for funding. Time is short.

In order to take full advantage of ARRA stimulus, Hospitals must demonstrate meaningful use in 2010 or 2011 to be eligible for the maximum reimbursement levels.

While the definition of meaningful use may change, it is clear that the goal of health information exchange is to make information available for use in clinical decision support tools that work to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of care. The federal HIT policy committee specified in their July 16, 2009 publication, that discrete data elements must be exchanged by hospitals and eligible providers. This excludes the possibility that static tools such as portals can continue to substitute for full-fledged Healthy Information Exchange (HIE) and makes HIE a requirement for healthcare organizations who want to collect ARRA incentives.

For hospitals, the stimulus payments resulting from documenting meaningful use of an EHR can range up to a maximum of $15 million, depending on how soon a hospital adopts and demonstrates meaningful use, the hospital's discharge levels, the Medicare and Medicaid shares and charity care provided. As an example, it is estimated that a hospital with 25,000 discharges per year that demonstrates meaningful use in 2010 or 2011 and has a mix of 30% Medicare, 15% Medicaid and 5% charity care, would be eligible for $7.5 million in incentives between 2011-2016.

Axolotl powers the most HIEs nationwide - clinically networking legacy and EMR systems to provide interoperability and secure communication of health information, making it available when and where it is needed. Don't delay, find out today how quickly and easily Axolotl can get you connected and demonstrating meaningful use for your hospital and your ambulatory physicians.