PQRS Webinar – Reschedule Date

Notice from GE Healthcare:

Dear Valued Quality Submission Services Customer,

We are writing to apologize for the issues with yesterdays PQRS Insurance Webinar. We know your time is valuable and are committed to equipping you with the information you need to meet the upcoming timelines. We will be conducting another webinar on Tuesday, February 3rd at 12 EST, with more robust information and instructions and hope that you are able to join us then.

Informational webinar: Updating Insurance and Transmitting to CQR

DATE: February 3, 2015     TIME: 9:00-10:00 AM PST / 12:00-1:00 PM EST        Registration Link

 

Thank you for your support,

Centricity Team

Surescripts agrees to spin-off Kryptiq / population health business

Notice from Kryptiq:

Dear Centricity Users,

I am writing to share some very exciting news: Surescripts has agreed to spin-off Kryptiq and its population health business – CareManager.The new company will be largely employee-owned. Surescripts will own a stake in the new company, and it will continue to operate the patient portal and clinical messaging business.

Why now?

The population health market is dynamic and growing rapidly. The majority of healthcare providers are adoption population health management processes to improve the cost and quality of care. But current IT systems do not support population-based care, nor do they enable clinically integrated networks to pursue team-based care. Kryptiq has been formally recognized as a market leader by IDC Health Insights and KLAS for doing these very things. We believe that our new structure will provide the speed and agility we need to keep pace with you as your organization adapts to new clinical workflows, new reimbursement patterns, and new technologies.

We are honored that you rely upon Kryptiq for your population health and patient relationship management needs. You have our pledge that the new company will continue innovating as we learn from your efforts to achieve healthcare’s Triple Aim. From product development, to service and support, you can continue to count on us to be your trusted business partner.

What is in store for 2015?

The coming year will begin a watershed era for Kryptiq. We will introduce a new user interface complete with updated and expanded clinical guidelines in the core CareManager product; we will bring our new team-based care tasking engine out of beta into full commercial release. And, we plan to expand the utility of our curated, evidenced-based clinical guidelines by driving new health improvement and condition management programs. We will continue to offer an integrated suite of patient relationship applications, including DocuSign for Patients and Patient Payment Services.

In the past year, Kryptiq has emerged as the clear choice for many of the nation’s leading healthcare organizations seeking a population health management IT solution. But these are the early days of healthcare transformation in the US, and our work has just begun.

I look forward to many shared successes in the months and years to come. Certainly, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me or any member of my team.

Sincerely,

Luis Machua, Chief Executive Officer, Kryptiq Corporation

Get Involved – CMS potential EHR Incentive Changes for 2015

Notice from the CHUG Board:

Dear CHUG Members,

Are your providers tired, overworded and struggling to meet meaningful use measures? Have staff starting asking “What is the point”?

Yesterday CMS announced a potential EHR Incentive Program Change for 2015! These proposed changes will reduce program complexity and ease the administrative burden on physician practices.

The CHUG Board is strongly recommending that you DON’T WAIT – GET INVOLVED….if you did not respond before NOW IS THE TIME! Reach out to Congress and let your voice be heard. MGMA members can also use this link.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to engage in rulemaking this spring to help ensure providers continue to meet meaningful use requirements.

In response to input from health care providers and other stakeholders, CMS is considering the following changes to the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

  1. Shortening the 2015 reporting period to 90 days to address provider concerns about their ability to fully deploy 2014 Edition software.
  2. Realigning hospital reporting periods to the calendar year to allow eligible hospitals more time to incorporate 2014 Edition software into their workflows and to better align with other quality programs.
  3. Modifying other aspects of the program to match long-term goals, reduce complexity, and lessen providers’ reporting burden.

Please note: these modifications must still be finalized through formal rulemaking, expected to occur this spring. While CMS intends to pursue these changes through rulemaking, they will NOT be included in the pending Stage 3 proposed rule. CMS intends to limit the scope of the pending proposed rule to Stage 3 and meaningful use in 2017 and beyond.

For further information, please read Dr. Conway’s blog on the announcement. For more information on the EHR Incentive programs visit CMS.

SAVE THE DATE: FALL CHUG Conference, New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, New York City, October 1 – October 3, 2015

PQRS WEBINAR: Updating Insurance & Transmitting to CQR

Notice from GE Healthcare:

January 29, 2015

QSS Webinar for PQRS on January 30: Updating and Transmitting to CQR

Dear Quality Submission Service Participant:

We have received a number of questions about the process to update insurance. Please join us for a webinar that will review how to apply Source of Payment (SOP) codes and describe how to transmit the data to Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR). Our team of experts will be available to answer your questions.

The slides and recording will be posted to the Service Portal after the presentation.

Informational webinar: Updating Insurance and Transmitting to CQR

DATE: January 30, 2015       TIME: 9:00-10:00 AM PST / 12:00-1:00 PM EST     WEBINAR REGISTRATION LINK

Reminder:You MUST install Service Pack 7 in order to apply the Source of Payment codes. Update insurance information as soon as possible after the webinar, measure selection and provider authorization cannot be completed until this step is performed.

If you have any questions, please contact Centricity Support at 888-436-8491 (option 2, option 3). For expedited service, please request the support representative record “PQRS” at the beginning of the description of the support ticket.

Thank you, GE Healthcare

QSS Deadline for PQRS: Step 6 Due February 7th

Notice from GE Healthcare:

January 27, 2015

Dear Quality Submission Service Participant:

We appreciate your continued attention to necessary preparations for GE Healthcare’s Quality Submission Service (QSS) program for PQRS 2014. Please take a moment to review the following details about important final steps and reference the insightful materials indicated below. We understand that it will take more time to complete the remaining tasks in preparation for provider authorization. As such, we have extended the Step 6 deadline to February 7th. Please continue to expedite your preparations. We are eager to support you as you seek to participate in the PQRS program and your adherence to these timelines will enable us to do so.

Step 6 – MUST BE COMPLETED BY FEBRUARY 7TH

Complete Upgrade, Update Insurance and Authorize

  • Complete upgrade to Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) 12.0.7 or Centricity EMR (CEMR) 9.8.7 or higher. (For instructions review pp. 10-23 of the CPS release notes or pp. 10-12 of the CEMR release notes which were updated on January 26).
  • Update insurance information (Review recently-updated slides in conjunction with previously-recorded webinar for instructions). PLEASE NOTE: Information in updated slides supersedes information in recording. CMS requires data for all payers as part of the submission. In order to ensure you meet the requirements to report on Medicare FFS data, we recommend you apply Source of Payment codes in a 2-part process: PART 1: Apply Medicare FFS and non-Medicare SOP codes PRIOR to measure selection. PART 2: Apply remaining Medicare SOP codes AFTER measure selection BUT BEFORE authorization. Instructions for Transmitting Source of Payment Data to Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR) before and after Part 2 are now available.
  • Authorize submission of provider measures in CQR (Watch recorded webinar and review slides for instructions).

As a part of step 6, regardless of any prior agreements with or communications to GE Healthcare on QSS, you MUST complete provider authorization in order for GE Healthcare to submit the authorized provider’s data to CMS for PQRS 2014.

  • NOTE: Complete the upgrade and update insurance information as early as possible; measure selection and provider authorization cannot be completed until these steps are performed. QSS Participants are solely responsible for the providers selected for authorization and quality measures chosen for submission to quality reporting programs offered by GE Healthcare.

If you have any questions, please contact Centricity Support at 888-436-8491 (option 2, option 3). For expedited service, please request that the support representative record “PQRS” at the beginning of the description of the support ticket.

Thank you, GE Healthcare

Patient Education Transition of Service

Notice from GE Healthcare:

We want to ensure you saw the following notice that was communicated via email and posted to the Service Portal on November 21, 2014. Slides and the recording from the referenced webinar are available in the “View Past Webinars” section of the Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Service Portals. Sincerely, GE Healthcare

Patient Education Transition of Service

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers:

We want to make you aware of an important change to the patient education material we support. As a reminder, the embedded ExitCare handouts we have historically supplied do NOT support your providers for Meaningful Use (MU) 2014. As a result, GE Healthcare has partnered with Truven to provide CareNotes patient education materials to all current Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) and Centricity EMR (CEMR) customers at no additional charge. Theses materials offer numerous benefits:

  • Over 8,400 education documents, covering problems, medications, and allergies.
  • Regular upgrades, maintenance, and support.
  • All documents available in English and Spanish and some in significantly more languages.
  • Support for MU Stage 2 Core Measure 13 (Patient-Specific Education) when accessed via the InfoButton from CPS 12 and CEMR 9.8.

For an additional cost you may also subscribe to provider referential information that supports MU Stage 2 Core Measure 6 (Clinical Decision Support) when accessed via the InfoButton.

 

  • If you have upgraded to CPS 12 or CEMR 9.8: Follow the instructions in the InfoButton Statement and Survey letter sent in April to configure your system for access to patient education via the InfoButton.
  • If you have NOT upgraded to CPS 12 or CEMR 9.8 – OR if you also want online access:You can still access the Truven patient education. Follow these Instructions for Online Access to Truven Patient Education to add a shortcut to your desktop. PLEASE NOTE: Online access will NOT count toward MU 2014.

To make this transition even easier, we will walk you through these instructions step by step in the following informational webinar.

Activating and Accessing Truven CareNotes Patient Education DATE: December 5, 2014 TIME: 10:30-11:00AM PST (1:30-2:00PM EST)

Should you wish to continue using ExitCare patient education after the embedded handouts expire, you may contract with Elsevier directly via email or by phone at 800-694-6669 ext 1, for other access options, such as online access, for an additional fee. PLEASE NOTE: Online access will NOT count toward MU 2014.

We expect the Truven CareNotes patient education content to satisfy a broader range of your patient education needs and more easily keep your educational materials current. If you have any questions about this transition, contact Centricity Suport Services at 1-888-436-8491.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan, Vice President & General Manger, Ambulatory Practice Solutions, GE Healthcare IT

Live Webinar: 6 Steps to Denial Management in CPS

CHUG Encore Presentation Webinar – 6 Steps to Denial Management in CPS
Date/Time: January 29, 2015, 2:00PM – 3:00PM EST

Speaker: Angela Hunsberger, Senior Healthcare Consultant, Hayes Management Consulting.

Join us for an encore presentation! In case you missed it during the Centricity Healthcare User Group (CHUG) fall conference, Angela Hunsberger will be discussing best practices and system tools to help track denials and automate tasks for unpaid claims using Centricity Practice Solutions.

During our webinar you will learn:

  • Methods to identify common denial codes by payor
  • How to automate denial management workflows using existing CPS tools, including (but not limited to) remittance, visit owners and task management
  • Tips and tricks for working non-payment appeals from real CPS users

Click here to register : simply fill out the form and press “Submit” to sign up for our webinar.

CQR Notice: DOWNTIME & New Instructional Resource

Notice from GE Healthcare:

Dear Clinical Quality Reporting Customer,

We want to share with you an important downtime notice for Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR) and introduce a new instructional resource, Monitoring Meaningful Use Data Flow.

The upcoming downtime is designed to implement a number of performance enhancements, including enabling practices to export multiple providers’ performance data to a single spreadsheet file. We expect to post release notes to the CQR section of the Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) and Centricity EMR (CEMR) Service Portals on Monday January 26th.

Please be aware of the following:

  • We will bring CQR down for a short period starting early Saturday, January 24th, and we expect the system to be available for full use by the evening of Saturday, January 24th:

o   The CQR Dashboard will be unavailable early Saturday morning through that afternoon.

o   CQR ingestion processes will be suspended briefly for some customers during that time.

  • For this maintenance period, you do NOT need to turn off your CQR Channel in QIE nor your CQR subscription in the CPS or CEMR application.  However, we recommend you review QIE for errors that may have occurred during the downtime or as a result of configuration changes within the CQR application. Instructions for CQR and QIE Error Review have been posted to the Service Portal.

We will work expeditiously to make these updates, and we will post an announcement to the Service Portal when the system is available.

To receive notifications directly to your email account when we post these updates, please log in to the CQR section of the CPS or CEMR Service Portal, click on “follow” in the top right hand corner of the page, and check “Inbox”. Should you need assistance in configuring your account to follow these pages, please read Getting Started: Following Products and Communities and Email or Stream Notifications?.

In addition, we recommend you review the new instructional resource, Monitoring Meaningful Use Data Flow, which describes how to monitor for successful flow of data to CQR on an ongoing basis and how to troubleshoot errors. It is now available to CPS and CEMR users on the Service Portal.

If you have any questions, please call Centricity Support Services at 1-888-436-8491.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan Vice President & General Manager, Ambulatory Practice Solutions GE Healthcare IT

 

CHUG at Centricity LIVE – Call for Presentations Deadline Friday Jan 30th

Your Expertise is Needed for CHUG at Centricity LIVE

Lead a Breakout Session CHUG at Centricity LIVE needs users like you to lead discussions or present on topics of interest to attendees. This is your opportunity to share your knowledge and establish yourself as an expert who tackles the most pressing issues.   There are plenty of speaking opportunities available. Help teach practical skills to your peers. Participate in or lead a panel discussion. Share best practices or a case study. CHUG at Centricity LIVE 2015 is a terrific venue to explore and discuss healthcare’s most pressing issues.

Here are some of the areas of interest –

  • Meaningful Use – How do we get the patient engaged in the process?
  • How do you utilize eRx?
  • How do you use reports?
  • What is the best way to enroll patients in the web portal?
  • Techniques to increase IT department productivity and efficiency
  • Change management techniques
  • Training techniques/ systems
  • How do you prioritize in a world where every project is a high priority?
  • How do you keep your Clinical Decision Support information up to date? Organized?
  • How do you get providers to use Orders?
  • How do you take the pain out of the orders module?
  • Customize versus Standardize – How do you balance them?
  • Any other topic that would be of interest to Centricity EMR or PM Users

Choose from the topics above or submit a new hot topic idea.

  • Build a crucial dialogue with your audience through multiple interactive education formats and social media.
  • Spark creative conversations: we welcome unique ideas for full sessions or topics for CHUG Table Chat.

Can you draw a crowd or start a discussion? If so, please submit a session!   Click on Call for PresentationMake sure to select “Propose a CHUG session”

In exchange for your participation, we’ll provide you with up to two complimentary registrations—each valued at $640—per session. Plus, you’ll achieve recognition for your organization and for yourself as a thought leader in healthcare informatics.

If you’d like to be a rock star at Centricity LIVE 2015 in Orlando or to learn more about leading a session, please contact at chug@beattygroup.com, or go ahead and submit a session. For those of you that don’t plan to lead a session but want to attend, register now and take advantage of early bird pricing.

Join CHUG at Centricity LIVE in Orlando

Register Today and Save!

Save $60 on the Platinum Pass if you register before February 28, 2015

Save $100 per person by registering three or more people from the same organization

As an attendee you have the opportunity to gain knowledge, tips and tricks from the multiple educational sessions and collaborate with healthcare professionals.   Click on Registration; Enter Registration Code CHUG15

Register today, mark your calendar, and bookmark the CHUG at Centricity LIVE 2015 web page to get updates on Conference content in the coming months. We’re looking forward to seeing you in Orlando in April!

SAVE the DATE – CHUG Fall 2015

Thursday, October 1 – Saturday, October 3, 2015 New York – Marriott Marquis in Times Square

CQR Notice: Tues January 20th – EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE PARTIAL DOWNTIME

Notice from GE Healthcare:

Dear Clinical Quality Reporting Customer,

We want to share with you an important emergency partial downtime notice for Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR) beginning on Tuesday January 20th, 9:00PM PST. The downtime is required to address delays some customers are experiencing in generating results. We currently expect the system to be available for full use by midnight.

During the current downtime we will to continue to receive documents into CQR from your QIE engine. Only the CQR Dashboard Service will be unavailable for use during the downtime.

We thank you for your patience during this time. If you have any additional questions, please call Centricity Support Services at 1-888-436-8491.

-Tim Donnelly, Cloud Services Leader

Join us CHUG at Centricity LIVE

More reasons than ever to attend CHUG at Centricity LIVE

With over 40 education sessions, product roadmap presentations, panel discussions and hands-on training, CHUG at Centricity LIVE is a premier learning conference to help YOU optimize your investment in GE Healthcare and network with other users like you!

Valuable Content

  •  Dedicated education tracks for Financial Management, Care Delivery Management, Population Health Management and Technology.
  • Customer presenters.
  • CEU credits available.
  • NEW THIS YEAR: The Centricity Technology track, designed with input from the GE Software Center of Excellence in San Ramon California.

Multiple Choices

CHUG at Centricity LIVE offers a full spectrum of learning options to suit your knowledge needs.

  • Product Roadmap sessions: Get a glimpse of what’s ahead for future releases.
  • Panel Discussions: Share and exchange best practices with industry and GE Healthcare experts.
  • Partner/Sponsor sessions: Get answers in deep-dives on complementary solutions.
  • Product Exploration sessions: Learn more about your existing solutions and discover new ways to boost their productivity — and their value.
  • Best Practice Case Studies: Hear how other organizations use their GE Healthcare solutions to tackle the challenges you face.
  • The Collaboration Zone: Get insight on new technologies and emerging healthcare trends.
  • Hands-on: Product demos at our ‘Sandbox’.

Attendees are eligible to purchase specially priced Disney Meeting & Convention Tickets. CLICK HERE to save 10% at Walt Disney World.

REGISTER TODAY, mark your calendar and bookmark the CHUG at Centricity LIVE 2015 web page to get updates on conference content in the coming months. We look forward to seeing you in Orlando in April!

Webinar Etiquette

How many webinars, on-line meetings, or calls have you been on in the past month? We have complied a list of the Top 4 things Not To Do:

1. Show up late and interrupt the conversation to let those know you have arrived.

2. Forget you are on mute. People are asking you questions and you aren’t responding? Why? Check your phone to make sure you haven’t forgotten to un-mute the call!

Read more

CQR Notice: DOWNTIME January 10-11

January 7, 2015

Dear Clinical Quality Reporting Customer,

We want to share with you an important downtime notice for Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR). This downtime is designed to accelerate turnaround times following some calculation requests, support PQRS-specific reporting and the download of large QRDA III files, and implement a number of other enhancements.

We expect to post release notes to the CQR section of the Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) and Centricity EMR (CEMR) Service portals on Monday January 12th.

Please be aware of the following:

  • We will bring CQR down for a short period starting early Saturday, January 10th, and we expect the system to be available for full use by the morning of Sunday, January 11th.
  • The CQR Dashboard will be unavailable early Saturday morning through that afternoon.
  • CQR ingestion processes will be suspended briefly for some customers druing that time.
  • For this Maintenance period, you do NOT need to turn off your CQR Channel in QIE nor your CQR subscription in the CPS or CEMR applications. However, we recommend you review QIE for errors that may have occurred during the downtime or as a result of configuration changes within the CQR application. Instructions for CQR and QIE Error Review have been posted to the Service Portal.

We will work expeditiously to make these updates, and we will post an announcement to the Service Portal when the system is available.

To receive notifications directly to your email account when we post these updates, please log in to the CQR section of the CPS or CEMR Service Portal, click on “follow” in the top right hand corner of the page, and check “InBox”. Should you need assistance in configuring your account to follow these pages, please read Getting Started: Following Products and Communities and Email or Stream Notifications?.

We thank you for your patience during this time. If you have any additional questions, please call Centricity Support Services at 1-888-436-8491.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan

Vice President & General Manager, Ambulatory Practice Solutions GE Healthcare IT

 

Schedule Right the FIRST Time

We use a Triage Scheduling form in our EMR to help guide staff into doing the right thing when scheduling. Scheduling staff are asked to follow so many different scheduling preferences it can be overwhelming trying to remember them all. We took the “remembering” aspect out of it and built our Triage form to do the remembering for us.

Staff enter information such as; type of injury, date of injury, insurance information, body part, etc., the EMR calculates that information along with age and zip code and will auto generate a list of appropriate physicians that I can schedule with. The form can give “pop-ups” that help with specific preferences such as “30 min for all bilateral hips” or “prior authorization before scheduling 2nd opinions”.

Read more