ANNOUNCEMENT

APRIL 9, 2009: CMS cancels Phase II of EHR Demonstration as Society steps up resources

For more information, click here to read the Medigram article about the cancellation.

---

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) selected the Wisconsin Medical Society, MetaStar and the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality to coordinate a 5-year CMS demonstration that will encourage small- to medium-sized primary care physician practices to use electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality of patient care.

The demonstration will involve 200 small- to medium-sized primary care practices (family/general practice, internal medicine or geriatrics) with 100 randomized to the demonstration treatment group and 100 randomized to the control group. A small- to medium-sized practice is defined as one with less than or equal to 20 physicians in a geographic location.

Over the five-year period, the project will provide incentives and bonuses up to $290,000 to each of 100 physician practices. Practice recruitment will begin in the summer of 2009.

---

Eligibility

The study setting is the state of Wisconsin excluding physician practices in 17 counties that are participating in another active CMS demonstration. The following counties are included:

Adams Bayfield Brown Buffalo Burnett Calumet Columbia Crawford Dane Dodge Door Douglas Dunn Florence

Fond du Lac Forest Grant Green Green Lake Iowa Iron Jackson Jefferson Juneau Kenosha Kewaunee LaCrosse Lafayette

Langlade Manitowoc Marinette Marquette Menominee Milwaukee Monroe Oconto Outagamie Ozaukee Pepin Pierce Polk Racine

Richland Rock Saint Croix Sauk Sheboygan Trempealeau Vernon Walworth Washington Waukesha Waupaca Waushara Winnebago

Physician practices that bill Medicare for services on a CMS-1500 claim form (or electronic equivalent) are eligible to participate in the EHR demonstration. If a community health center (federally qualified health centers or rural health centers) or tribally owned/run facility wants to participate in the demonstration, it may do so only if it complies with this requirement.

This requirement is necessary because of information present on the CMS 1500 claim form (or electronic equivalent) that is needed for implementing and evaluating the demonstration. This includes key provider identification numbers, rendering provider specialty code, and, most important, claim line level HCPCS procedure codes. All of this information is required to carry out the beneficiary assignment algorithm and calculate the quality measures, which are being used to determine the financial incentives under the demonstration as well as compare the demonstration "treatment" and control group practices on quality performance.

For more information, contact Cindy Helstad, PhD, RN, at 608.442.3751 or Cindy.Helstad@wismed.org.

---

ANNOUNCEMENT

APRIL 9, 2009: CMS cancels Phase II of EHR Demonstration as Society steps up resources

For more information, click here to read the Medigram article about the cancellation.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) selected the Wisconsin Medical Society, MetaStar and the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality to coordinate a 5-year CMS demonstration that will encourage small- to medium-sized primary care physician practices to use electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality of patient care.

The demonstration will involve 200 small- to medium-sized primary care practices (family/general practice, internal medicine or geriatrics) with 100 randomized to the demonstration treatment group and 100 randomized to the control group. A small- to medium-sized practice is defined as one with less than or equal to 20 physicians in a geographic location.

Over the five-year period, the project will provide incentives and bonuses up to $290,000 to each of 100 physician practices. Practice recruitment will begin in the summer of 2009.

---

Eligibility

The study setting is the state of Wisconsin excluding physician practices in 17 counties that are participating in another active CMS demonstration. The following counties are included:

Adams Bayfield Brown Buffalo Burnett Calumet Columbia Crawford Dane Dodge Door Douglas Dunn Florence

Fond du Lac Forest Grant Green Green Lake Iowa Iron Jackson Jefferson Juneau Kenosha Kewaunee LaCrosse Lafayette

Langlade Manitowoc Marinette Marquette Menominee Milwaukee Monroe Oconto Outagamie Ozaukee Pepin Pierce Polk Racine

Richland Rock Saint Croix Sauk Sheboygan Trempealeau Vernon Walworth Washington Waukesha Waupaca Waushara Winnebago

Physician practices that bill Medicare for services on a CMS-1500 claim form (or electronic equivalent) are eligible to participate in the EHR demonstration. If a community health center (federally qualified health centers or rural health centers) or tribally owned/run facility wants to participate in the demonstration, it may do so only if it complies with this requirement.

This requirement is necessary because of information present on the CMS 1500 claim form (or electronic equivalent) that is needed for implementing and evaluating the demonstration. This includes key provider identification numbers, rendering provider specialty code, and, most important, claim line level HCPCS procedure codes. All of this information is required to carry out the beneficiary assignment algorithm and calculate the quality measures, which are being used to determine the financial incentives under the demonstration as well as compare the demonstration "treatment" and control group practices on quality performance.

For more information, contact Cindy Helstad, PhD, RN, at 608.442.3751 or Cindy.Helstad@wismed.org.

---