Providers

Greenway Customers Secure More Than $1 Million in Meaningful Use Incentives

Aug 8, 2011 9:24am

Physicians Credit PrimeSUITE's Meaningful Use Dashboard for Streamlining Medicare Attestation and Creating Clinical Workflows; Share Optimism Toward Accountable Care

CARROLLTON, Ga., Aug. 8, 2011,/PRNewswire/ -- Physician customers utilizing Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc.'s certified and integrated electronic health record (EHR), practice management and interoperability solution PrimeSUITE® 2011 have secured more than $1 million in combined Medicaid and Medicare meaningful use incentive funds.

Customers began receiving funds respectively in February and May following the opening of initial state Medicaid programs and the beginning of national Medicare Stage 1 attestation in April. Eligible professionals (EPs) can secure between $44,000 and $63,750 per provider throughout the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) incentive program.

Premier Family Physicians in Austin, Texas has received funds for multiple EPs following successful Medicare incentives attestation this spring. "We have been able to invest the funds into our practice to allow new physicians coming in to already be wired," said Premier's Kevin Spencer, MD. "As we grow the practice we can offer them a battle-tested platform and turn on the meaningful use meter. That is a huge element to be able to promise."

Formerly South Austin Family Clinic, the practice changed its name to reflect the addition of offices throughout its metropolitan area. "Meaningful use has also brought us clinical benefits," said Spencer. "While the criteria reflected our existing goals, it provided the impetus for us to change our workflows and provide real clinical care coordination and change management on a more rapid timeline. To put up the Dashboard and track and show progress publicly was a very new thing for this practice, and now we are used to looking at clinical outcomes and seeing how the entire practice can be measured. We can track patients, find those outliers and improve clinical data."

A sampling of Greenway® practices receiving incentive funds includes 30 EPs in one practice in Lancaster, PA, multiple EPs in family medicine or specialty practices such as six EPs attesting for Medicare in Mississippi, and practices in Oklahoma and Alabama which were among the first in the nation to receive funds.

Rajesh Rao, MD, received funds following attestation May 10 as one of seven EPs at Associates in Rehabilitation in Morristown, NJ. "We see a lot of musculoskeletal and arthritis patients for example within our allowables and for me the meaningful use capture was very painless. Our attestation only took about half an hour. The Greenway Dashboard was very helpful as we were able to get a very quick answer on whether we met the requirements."

Like Spencer at Premier, Rao found clinical benefits within the criteria. "One of the meaningful use trackings by itself that readily adapted to our practice is communicating directly with another physician practice through the EHR system. I think meaningful use tracking is particularly good for physicians with patients with constant medical needs," said Rao.

Medical Arts Center Clinic in Brigham City, Utah has qualified EPs for both the Medicare and Medicaid incentive pathways based on individual patient populations among its five physicians practicing ObGyn, family and internal medicine on site.

"My sense is that the entire meaningful use process worked well," said Lynn Beard, MD. "I deal with complex patients in internal medicine, and I am very much in favor of standards and sharable data and having a bridge between our area hospitals. We can generate our own real data based on actual patient encounters." Beard has practiced medicine for 27 years and has been on PrimeSUITE since 2009. "I like to know where I stand compared to my peers and what my numbers are, and the EHR and this (meaningful use) program ultimately should be able to do that."

Transitioning to Care Coordination and ACO Models

Customers successfully navigating meaningful use with PrimeSUITE see the relationship to the Shared Savings and Accountable Care Organization (ACO) proposal CMS has also put forth.

"Our ACO goal really is simply to be ACO ready," said Spencer. "We know a different payment model for CMS patients is coming, and the ability to track data, prove quality outcomes and share data is the currency of being patient centric and accessible and having a capable business model going forward, and Greenway is building that capability."

Like Beard's ability and increased desire to interact with hospitals, Rao at Associates in Rehabilitation is anticipating the expansion of care coordination. "Really the EHR has many more components than just what is needed for meaningful use. The specialty templates in PrimeSUITE are an advantage, and the integration of practice management and billing. We feel comfortable with the Greenway solution looking ahead to accountable care, and we are looking at what the area hospitals are proposing as we watch how the formation of ACOs adapt," said Rao.

"Obviously we are very pleased and gratified with the success our customers have found with the meaningful use program," said Greenway President and CEO Tee Green. "And we know this is just a beginning and focuses on one segment of the patient population where our functionality can ultimately help tame the growth in healthcare costs. We are also partnering with our customers on the overall goal of data sharing and data analytics that emerging programs like accountable care can also help foster toward a truly national health information network."

About Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc.

Greenway Medical Technologies provides innovative EHR, ambulatory healthcare and clinical research business solutions and services to more than 33,000 healthcare providers nationwide, in 30 specialties and subspecialties, by enhancing the delivery of patient care through advanced health IT software and on-demand services that allow physician practices to function at their highest level of efficiency in group practice, IDN, REC, HIE, IPA, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) settings. Established in 1998, Carrollton, Ga.-based Greenway is a privately held company with more than 500 employees.  

About PrimeSUITE 2011 Meaningful Use Certification

PrimeSUITE® 2011 is an ONC-ATCB Complete EHR. The 2011/2012 criteria supports the Stage 1 meaningful use measures required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This Complete EHR is 2011/2012 compliant and has been certified by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This certification does not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or guarantee the receipt of incentive payments. PrimeSUITE 2011 was certified on October 14, 2010, certification number CC-1112-699072-1 for clinical quality measures NQF 0421, 0013, 0028, 0041, 0024, 0038, 0031, 0032 and 0034.

Review complete details of PrimeSUITE 2011's meaningful use certification on CCHIT and ONC websites: http://www.cchit.org/products/onc-atcb and http://onc-chpl.force.com/ehrcert.

For more information about Greenway, visit www.greenwaymedical.com. You can also follow developments at Greenway through online and social media:


Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in the press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including but not limited to economic, competitive, governmental, and technological factors affecting the Company's operations, markets, services and related products, prices, and other factors.

SOURCE Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc.