| If you are in the healthcare sector, you need to stay | | | | Inpatient bed days attributable to Part A plus inpatient |
| tuned to all Healthcare IT software updates. | | | | bed days attributable to Part C. The denominator: The |
| One thing we all know by now is that hospitals that | | | | total number of inpatient bed days times (non-charity |
| meet ARRA’s criteria get to collect incentives | | | | care charges divided by total amount of charges). |
| starting at $2 million. Based on your hospital’s | | | | “Transition Factor”: This depends on the |
| Medicare discharges and the year that you make the | | | | adoption year you achieve ‘meaningful’ EHR |
| EHR transition, the government will adjust the figure. | | | | use and progressively decreases over the four |
| How much your facility stands to gain can certainly be | | | | reimbursement years. For hospitals that achieve |
| a head scratcher. But there’s good news for you | | | | meaningful EHR use in 2011 to 2013, the transition |
| as you can calculate your anticipated share of funding | | | | factor is 100 percent for the first year, followed by 75, |
| with this breakdown of the Medicare incentive formula. | | | | 50 and 25 percent in the subsequent years. |
| The formula for acute care prospective payment | | | | Hospitals that accomplish meaningful EHR use in 2014 |
| system (PPS) hospitals is: | | | | will benefit from three reimbursement years only, |
| Initial Amount times Medicare Share times Transition | | | | beginning with a transition factor of 75 percent. And |
| Factor = Total Incentive Amount | | | | those who do not achieve meaningful EHR use by |
| The ‘Initial Amount’ is $2 million in addition to | | | | 2015 will benefit from only two reimbursement years |
| $200 for each discharge between the 1,150th and | | | | beginning with a transition factor of 50 percent. Those |
| 23,000th discharge in a 12-month period. There’s no | | | | who fail to adopt EHR by 2015 won’t bag any |
| credit for the first 1,149 discharges or discharges after | | | | incentive. |
| 23,000. | | | | So if you want to achieve maximum payout, brace up |
| The Medicare Share a fraction: The numerator: | | | | and adopt EHR before 2013. |