News

Hurricane Harvey – Disaster Exceptions/Exemptions for Medicare Certified Providers Affected by Severe Storms & Flooding

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is granting exceptions under certain Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs to acute care hospitals, PPS-exempt cancer hospitals, inpatient psychiatric facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, outpatient dialysis facilities, long-term care hospitals, and ambulatory surgical centers located in areas affected by Hurricane Harvey due to the devastating impact of the storm. These providers will be granted exceptions without having to submit an extraordinary circumstances exception request if they are located in one of the Texas counties or Louisiana parishes, all of which have been designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a major disaster county.

The scope and duration of the exception under each Medicare quality reporting program is described in the memo posted on 8-31-17; however, all of the exceptions are being granted to assist these providers while they direct their resources toward caring for their patients and repairing structural damages to facilities.

If FEMA expands the current disaster declaration for Hurricane Harvey to include additional counties or parishes, CMS will update this memo to expand the list of providers eligible to receive an exception without submitting a request to include the hospitals, PPS-exempt cancer hospitals, inpatient psychiatric facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals, and ambulatory surgical centers located in the additional counties and parishes.

In addition, CMS will continue to monitor the situation and adjust exempted reporting periods and submission deadlines accordingly.

Additional details and materials are available on the CMS Hurricane webpage. Please check back frequently for updates.

A Special Request from the KLAS President

Traditionally we reach out to you to understand how your vendors are performing for you. Today we would like to flip that around and ask how KLAS is doing and what we can do to help you be more successful in a changing world.

So in place of this months newsletter, I am asking a huge favor. Would you be willing to take 3 1/2 minutes and share your insight and allow us to listen and understand your perceptions of KLAS and the value you receive from us?

Thanks in advance for your help in this effort, we appreciate your continued support and interest in KLAS.

Thank you,
Adam Gale, President KLAS

CLICK TO BEGIN SURVEY!

2018 CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP) Proposed Rule Webinar

2018 CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP) Proposed Rule Webinar on August 17th

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

Mark Segal, GE Healthcare Vice President Government and Industry Affairs, and Chad Dodd, General Manager of Ambulatory Practice Solutions, would like to invite you to attend an important session on 2018 CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP) Proposed Rule on Thursday August 17, 2017.

Read this communication to learn more and to register.

By FRIDAY JUNE, 23RD Responses needed for KLAS!

Responses are needed for KLAS Interoperability Questionnaire by Friday, June 23rd

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

Meaningful interoperability continues to be a pursuit of providers, vendors, and industry oversight bodies. As our recent work demonstrates, seamless clinical data integration can help practices save providers an hour per day in chart reviews and succeed in value-based care.

KLAS measures clinical and end-users’ experience with clinical data acquired from outside their organizations. Research regarding experience with ambulatory solutions, including GE Healthcare’s solutions, are particularly needed. Please respond via this link by Friday, June 23rd.

KLAS 2017 Interoperability Questionnaire.

Learn more about KLAS’s important research initiative in this communication from Chad Dodd, GM of Ambulatory Practice Solution.

REMINDER: EMPA Webinar on Thursday March 9th

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers:

GE Healthcare would like to remind you of our invitation to attend a webinar about our new solution, Electronic Medication Prior Authorization (EMPA), on Thursday March 9th. Manual medication prior authorization processes cost providers time, decrease patient satisfaction, and delay time to treatment. GE Healthcare’s Electronic Medication Prior Authorization (EMPA)solution helps practices streamline and expedite the process for increased provider efficiency and enhanced care quality. One practice saved their nurses over 10 hours per provider in the first three days.

Read THIS communication from Chad Dodd to learn more and to register for the upcoming webinar.

EMPA IS HERE! New time-saving solution for CPS/CEMR Customers

February 15, 2017

Dear Centricity™ Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers:

GE Healthcare is excited to announce the general availability of our solution for Electronic Medication Prior Authorization (EMPA). Manual medication prior authorization processes cost providers time, decrease patient satisfaction, and delay time to treatment. GE Healthcare’s Electronic Medication Prior Authorization (EMPA) solution helps practices streamline and expedite the process for increased provider efficiency and enhanced care quality. One practice saved their nurses over 10 hours per provider in the first week.

CLICK HERE to read this communication from Chad Dodd to learn more and to register for our upcoming webinar.

CMS Extends Deadline for 2016 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Electronic Health Record (EHR) Submission

CMS is extending the submission deadline for 2016 Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) data submission for the EHR reporting mechanism. Individual eligible professionals (EPs), PQRS group practices, qualified clinical data registries (QCDRs), and qualified EHR data submission vendors (DSVs) now have until March 13, 2017 to submit 2016 EHR data via QRDA. The original submission deadline was February 28, 2017.

Read more

IMPORTANT JULY KB NOTICE!

Dear Centricity customer,
This morning Centricity Support found an issue with interaction checking that arose after applying the July 2016 Incremental Knowledgebase This issue was found to affect both EMR and CPS products.

We are asking customers who have downloaded the July 2016 KB zip file but have not installed it, please do not install. We are working with Engineering to identify the cause of the issue and will release a new build when the issue is fixed.

If you have already installed the July 2016 KB, please alert your staff and we will inform you when a new build of the July KB becomes available for you to download and apply to address this issue.

Thank you,
The Centricity Services Team

Chris Daughtry is looking to rock your world at Centricity LIVE, Learn more

Are you ready to rock-n-roll at Centricity LIVE?

Do you have a favorite Chris Daughtry song? Of course you do… so come prepared to rock-n-roll to his greatest hits as he performs LIVE ON STAGE during his keynote address.

Register for CLIVE

Chris DaughtryChris Daughtry
Rock singer, songwriter and motivational patient activist
Chris Daughtry is a rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His self-titled album sold more than 1 million copies after just five weeks of release, becoming the fastest selling debut rock album in history. Daughtry’s keynote will highlight his path to stardom, his experience on American Idol, and his community outreach with Musicians On Call, a non-profit organization that brings music to the bedsides of people that need it most – hospital patients and their care givers. Daughtry’s address will feature an acoustic performance of his hit songs, including It’s Not Over and Home.

Keynote: Thursday, May 19, 2016, 5:00 PM

 

Don’t forget, we have two other great keynote speakers

Kathleen Sebelius

Healthcare leader, strategist and politician
Kathleen Sebelius was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services (2009-2014) by President Barack Obama. Prior to that, she served as Kansas Governor (2003-2009), in the Kansas House of Representatives and as Insurance Commissioner. Join Secretary Sebelius as she shares her perspective on United States healthcare, the future of the Affordable Care Act, and the challenges, successes, and key learnings realized in implementing major healthcare IT systems.

Conference Keynote: Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 4:30 PM

Rob Lowe

Award-winning actor, author and healthcare activist
A prolific actor, Rob Lowe is instantly recognized for a multitude of performances including St. Elmo’s Fire, The West Wing, and Parks and Recreation. Off screen, he is a dedicated activist in the fight against cancer, working with organizations like the Cancer Hope Network and Stand Up To Cancer. Lowe uses candor and humor to share insights about Hollywood, his perspective on marriage and fatherhood, and his passion to raise awareness and support for cancer survivors. Have your questions ready… Rob Lowe will answer many of them LIVE ON STAGE!

Keynote: Friday, May 20, 2016, 8:00 AM

Centricity LIVE 2016
May 17-20, 2016
Phoenix Convention Center
Phoenix, Arizona

Bring 3+ people from the same organization… Save $100* per ticket!

See you Phoenix!

Register for CLIVE

Mark Your Calendar and bookmark the Centricity LIVE 2016 web page to get updates on conference content in the coming months.

* Applies to Full Registrations only. See website for details.

ACTION ALERT: Ask your legislator to Co-Sponsor HR 3940 – the MU Hardship Relief Act

Message from AAOE:

You may have seen in the last issue of “Coffey Talk” that AAOE and similar organizations are pushing to have a new exception to the meaningful use program added into the omnibus budget legislation currently being negotiated in the halls of Congress. While staff is working with members of the House Committee on Appropriations to get this included, we need your help. The more co-sponsors the legislation creating the new exception has, the more likely it is to be included in the omnibus.

PLEASE, write your Representative and ask that they co-sponsor HR 3940 – The Meaningful Use Hardship Relief Act of 2015. Simply follow this link and TAKE ACTION.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to write your legislators. AAOE will keep you updated through Coffey Talk from the Hill and The OrthoActivist on this issue as it continues to develop.

Thank you!
Bradley Coffey, MA
Government Affairs Specialist
American Association of Orthopaedic Executives
3925 River Crossing Pkwy Suite 300
Indianapolis, IN 46240

Video – MU & Drug Interaction Patches

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:
We would like to direct your attention to a video produced by GE Healthcare regarding the Meaningful Use and Drug Interaction patches. This video provides an overview of our two patches developed to ensure that your Meaningful Use numbers are accurate after the application of Service Pack 11, as well as ensure that your workflow is not impacted by an increase in Drug Interaction popup alerts.

Please click HERE to watch the video. Thank you!

Quality Reporting Preparation Program – Webinar Series Continues

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

As you continue your Meaningful Use (MU) and quality program preparations, we hope you found our recent webinars on the final rule and troubleshooting measures valuable. We have posted the recordings to the Quality Reporting Communities on the Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) and Centricity EMR (CEMR) Service Portals and scheduled new webinars to help support your preparations. Click HERE to read this communication from Chad Dodd to learn more.

Meaningful Use Stage 2 Tips: Core Measure 12 (Preventive Care)

To meet Core Measure 12, Centricity has the ability to mass generate letters in conjunction with Inquires to transmit targeted reminder letters. It is possible to retrieve a subset of patients with a certain condition who were seen on a given date range. After retrieving the list, reminder letters can be generated for each patient, pulling patient specific details into the letter template. To have the action counted with CQR, the letter MUST be saved in a folder with “Actionable” in the title.

Example: To setup an inquiry to retrieve diabetic patients seen in a month, an inquiry can be setup with these criteria:
FIND patients WHERE problem code ICD-9, active CONTAINS ’250′ AND FIND patients WHERE appointment date IS ON OR AFTER 01/01/2015 AND FIND patients WHERE appointment date IS BEFORE 02/01/2015.

After clicking search and retrieving the information, reminders can be generated by selecting the activity of SEND REMINDER. Find the letter template and click print.

Mike Baeske
Software Applications Specialist – Team Leader
Ortho NorthEast (“ONE”)
1330 Medical Park Drive, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 46825

Product Info Notice: Service Pack 11, Drug Interaction Overrides

Message from GE Healthcare:

December 4, 2015

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

We would like to direct your attention to a scenario which may increase or change drug interaction override popup frequency after the Service Pack (SP) 11 upgrade. Each user may be affected differently based on their enterprise and user preferences and the patients’ active medications. Please read this communication from Chad for recommended steps to reduce the drug interaction override popups.

REMINDER: Customer State of the Union Address Sept 16th

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers,
Jon Zimmerman, VP & GM of Clinical Business Solutions and I would like to invite you to attend our next Customer State of the Union webinar on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2015.

The State of the Union provides important updates and, as you saw from our prior communications, forms an intergral part of our preparation series. Click HERE to read this communication from Peter Kinhan with details.

2015 Quality Reporting Preparation Program for MU, PQRS & CPCi

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers;

We are pleased to announce the launch of our 2015 Quality Reporting Preparation Program. This preparation program, modeled after our highly successful ICD-10 preparation program, is designed to help your practice prepare for Meaningful Use (MU) and the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) as well as the latest addition to our supported quality programs, the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative (CPCi).

The submission deadlines for these programs are about six (6) months away, and we are eager to share with you the resources we have developed to help you prepare and be successful.

Click HERE to read this communication from Peter Kinhan with additional details.

Welcome Kate Daly as CHUG Keynote Speaker!

One of the hallmarks of CHUG is coming together as user’s to share ideas and help deliver innovation to each other. With that in mind, our keynote speaker at this year’s conference is Kate Daly, Senior Vice President of the Center for Economic Developement at the New York City Economic Development Corpooration (NYCEDC).

New York City is uniquely positioned to be a leader in healthcare technology and innovation. Kate’s keynote will highlight how the NYCEDC is capitalizing on this potential to tackle key issues in the healthcare ecosystem, including community health clinic expansion, funding and technical assistance for innovative pilot projects, financing for health tech companies, and much more!

Registration is still open for this exciting even in New York!

PQRS & Meaningful Use – Take Action by End of Month

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

We have three important message to communicate regarding PQRS and Meaningful Use (MU):
1. PQRS and GPRO – Action due June 30th
2. MU and PQRS – Additional Clinical Quality Measures – No Action Required
3. MU – Application for Hardship Exception for 2014 – Due July 1st

Please read this communication from Peter Kinhan to learn more!

Message from the CHUG Board

CHUG UPDATE

Good Day CHUG Community,
The CHUG Board hopes all of you enjoyed CHUG at Centricity Live. If you missed it, we encourage you to join us for our next conference this October in New York City.

As I start to settle back into my routine, I think back and am struck by how much we have collectively accomplished and how far we have to go. The CHUG Board spent a great deal of time discussing how to ensure we are properly informing our membership about everything that we do on your behalf. Transparency is a big part of Advocacy because it allows us to build trust in one another. Our goal over the months leading up to our conference in NYC will be to send out monthly updates from the CHUG Board.

On Friday May 1st, the second day of the CHUG at Centricity LIVE conference, the CHUG Board was able to sit down with Mr. Jan De Witte and members of his leadership team. We spoke frankly, openly, and honestly about the struggles all of our members have encountered over the past year. We did note, although there have been struggles, recently it seems as if the corner is being turned and things are starting to get better. Mr. De Witte acknowledged there is still much work to be done to build back up the trust, but gave a firm commitment to stay involved in the process. He further committed to working on a messaging and communication process that will allow GE to become much more transparent benefitting all of their customers.

The CHUG Board looks forward to working with Mr. De Witte’s team to implement this plan in the coming months.

Another important meeting at CHUG centered on our discussions with SureScripts. As many of you may already know, Surescripts has spun out their Care Coordination solution under the brand of Kryptiq. The Patient Portal, Document Management, and ePrescribing remain under the name of Surescripts Enterprise Solutions. Mr. Paul Uhrig, EVP of the SureScripts Enterprise Services division, has assured us of a similar transparent communication and messaging path. We hope to implement this in the coming months.

If you were unable to attend the conference or missed the opening session, I spoke about “CHUG being what you make it”. I encouraged everyone to find that one thing you can take back to your office or clinic or hospital- one innovation, workflow change, new product or idea that will make the all the difference to you or your physicians, nurses, biller, or front desk staff. Hopefully you were able to find and accomplish your one thing, if not, there is still time. If you have not already done so, please send us your one thing to myonething@centricityusers.com or #mychugonething.

All of this is just the beginning, 2015 is about Advocacy and we need your help. Sign up for a committee and volunteer to be part of this vibrant community, we need you. If at any time you would like to discuss something with us or have a question, email the CHUG Board at chugboard@centricityusers.com. Thank you for your time and attention, I look forward to seeing all of you in New York City on October 1-3, 2015 for the Fall CHUG Conference.

Respectfully,

The CHUG Board of Directors

Senate passes legislation to repeal SGR!

Notice from AAOE:
April 14, 2015

The United States Senate passed legislation to repeal the flawed Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) today. The legislation will now go to President Barack Obama for his signature, having been passed by the House of Representatives on March 26, 2015. The President has indicated that he will sign the legislation.

With passage of HR 2 – Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, providers will avoid a 21 percent cut that was set to be implemented at midnight on Wednesday, April 15, 2015.

Votes on six amendments to the legislation began at 7:10 pm ET. All six amendments failed. Voting on the House passed legislation began at 9:35 pm ET following a challenge from Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to the legislation not being fully paid for.

The Senate voted 92-8 to repeal the SGR.

Bradley Coffey, MA
Government Affairs Specialist

American Association of Orthopaedic Executives
3925 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 300, Indianapolis, IN 46240

Stage 3 NPRM Comment Period Now Open: Submit by May 29th

CMS and ONC invite the public to submit comments on the recently released notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs) on Stage 3 requirements and 2015 Edition certification criteria for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Comments must be received by May 29th to be considered.

How To Submit Comments
The public can submit comments in several ways, including via electronic submission or mail:

1. Electronically
* You may submit electronic comments to http://www.regulations.gov Follow the “Submit a comment” instructions.
2. By regular mail.
3. By express or overnight mail.
4. By hand or couier.

View the Stage 3 and 2015 Edition certification criteria proposed rules online for more information. Submissions must be received by 11:59pm ET on May 29, 2015 in order to be considered.

For More Information
For more information on the Stage 3 and 2015 Edition certification criteria proposed rules, review the press release and fact sheet.

Merit-based Incentive Payment System: Summary & Analysis

Notice from AAOE:
HR 1470, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2015 creates the Merit-based incentive Payment System (MIPS) which will combine the three quality incentive payment programs (PQRS, VBM, and EHR MU) into one quality incentive payment program. This sheet summarizes the planned MIPS program as it appears in the proposed legislation. Changes to the program are likely as the legislation makes its way through Congress. This should not be viewed as a final summary of the program.

Click HERE to read the rest of the summary and analysis.

HR 1470 – SGR Repeal & Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2015

Notice from AAOE:
On Thursday, March 19, 2015 legislation was introduced in Congress to permanently repeal the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate. AAOE understands that this is an exciting development for our members who are eager to avoid a 21% cut in physician payments on April 1, 2015. Below, readers will find AAOE’s section-by-section analysis of the legislation and what is means for their practices.

This legislation is likely to change as it makes its way through the legislative process. AAOE will continue to update its members on changes to the legislation as they occur.

Click HERE to read the full article by AAOE.

GE State of the Union Address

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers:

Peter Kinhan, VP & GM of Ambulatory Practice Solutions, invites you to attend our next Customer State of the Union webinar on Monday, March 30, 2015.

Click here to read more!

Product Issue affecting PQRS & MU: CQMs CMS 68 & CMS 147

Message from GE Healthcare:
Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

We are writing to advise you of an important issue pertaining to PQRS and Meaningful Use reporting with Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR). We have learned that results for Clinical Quality Measure (CQMs) CMS 68 and CMS 147 may not be calculated appropriately for your practice. This communication describes the nature of the problem, what we have done to resolve it, and actions we recommend to ensure the appropriateness of your PQRS and/or Meaningful Use reporting using CQR results.

In summary, we recommend four scenarios for action.
* For those who plan to use or have already used CQR for PQRS and for those who plan to use CQR for Meaningful Use, we recommend the actions described below.
* For those who have already used CQR for Meaingful Use for Medicare, NO ACTION is required.
* For those who have already used Crystal Reports or plan to use Crystal Reports (or another reporting mechanism) to attest for Meaningful Use, NO ACTION is required.
* For those who have already used CQR for Meaningful Use for Medicaid, we recommend that you contact your state for guidance.

Click below for additional information:
For CPS customers
For CEMR customers

CMS Extends Deadline for Medicare Eligible Professionals to Attest to Meaningful Use

New EHR Attestation Deadline for Medicare Eligible Professionals: March 20, 2015

Eligible professionals now have until 11:59 pm ET on March 20, 2015, to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program 2014 reporting year.

CMS extended the deadline to allow providers extra time to submit their meaningful use data. CMS continues to urge providers to begin attesting for 2014 as soon as they can.

This extension also allows eligible professionals, who have not already used their one “switch”, to switch programs (from Medicare to Medicaid, or vice versa) for the 2014 payment year until 11:59 pm ET on March 20, 2015. After that time, eligible professionals will no longer be able to switch programs.

Medicare eligible professionals must attest to meaningful use every year to receive an incentive and avoid a payment adjustment. Providers who successfully attest for the 2014 program year will:

Note: The Medicare extension does not affect deadlines for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. Additionally, the EHR reporting option for PQRS has been extended until March 20, 2015. Please be on the lookout for a separate listserv with information regarding the PQRS program extension.

How to Attest
Submit your data to the Registration and Attestation System, which includes 2014 Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) Flexibility Rule options.

Tips for speed:

  • Attest during non-peak hours, such as evenings and weekends
  • Start now to:
    • Check that your information is up to date
    • Begin entering your 2014 data

To learn more, see the Educational Resources on the CMS EHR Incentive Programs website.

For help, call the EHR Information Center: 1-888-734-6433
TTY for people with hearing impairments: 1-888-734-6563
Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 7:30 pm (ET)

Webinar: Thriving in an Age of Consumerism: Focus on Patient Engagement Technology

A FREE web event sponsored by Medfusion Patient Portal:

Date: February 24th          Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (EST)

As patients become more price sensitive and shop around for their healthcare, is your practice prepared to adapt?

It’s not just good enough to install patient-facing technology; discover how to harness it to create a win/win for your patients – and your practice.

Join practice operations expert Elizabeth Woodcock to explore how to effectively integrate patient engagement technology to enhance patient communication, improve referral management, retain patients and reach Meaningful Use goals.

Register for this FREE web event today!

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

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!

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

 

MU Crystal Reports v1.10.4 now available

Message from GE Healthcare:

December 22, 2014

Dear Centricity Customers:

The Meaningful Use Crystal Reports that support Meaningful Use 2013 criteria have been updated to support Patient Level Detail. The package includes all changes from versions 1.10, 1.10.2, and 1.10.3. It updates all Functional Measures to display Patient Level Details when running the reports in Centricity Practice Solution v12.0 and Centricity EMR v9.8.

We recommend that you run these patient level detail reports and save them for audit purposes. For more details, please reference the release notes for CPS and CEMR that we have posted to the service portal.

As a reminder, these reports are available to support the MU Flexibility rule finalized by CMS August 29, 2014, where some Eligible Professionals (EPs) may qualify to use alternate methods for attesting for Meaningful Use in 2014. Review the recorded webinar and CMS Meaningful Use Flexibility Scenario Tool on the service portal for further details on the available flexibility options.

Sincerely,

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

Additional Meaningful Use Resources

Message from GE Healthcare:

December 22, 2014

Dear Centricity Customers:

We have recently released additional resources to help you make your final preparations to attest to Meaningful Use.

  • Service Pack 7 is now generally available. This release supports 14 additional Clinical Quality Measures (bringing the total of supported CQMs to 36), it includes PQRS updates to identify Medicare Part B patient visits, and it incorporates the MU Functional Measure changes originally available only through the Meaningful Use Update Patch.
  • We published a revision to the Meaningful Use Workflows Info Sheet that describes new workflows and resolutions to help ensure you capture the appropriate data for calculations.
  • Finally, we released an updated version of the Meaningful Use User Guide for Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers that will serve as your comprehensive resource for understanding how the measures are calculated and workflows that support those measures.

We hope you find these resources useful. We are committed to your success and are standing by to support you through your final phases of Meaningful Use 2014 preparation.

Sincerely,

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

CLINICAL VISIT SUMMARY – Product Information Notice

Message from GE Healthcare:

December 19, 2014

Dear Centricity Customer,

We would like to make you aware of potentially unexpected behavior when attaching a clinical visit summary to a patient’s chart that, if not immediately addressed as instructed below, has the potential in limited cases to inadvertently lead to health information from one patient being available to another patient. Users of Centricity Practice Solution 12.0.x or Centricity EMR 9.8.x should follow the instructions in this letter to determine if you have experienced this issue in the past. We recommend that you upgrade to Service Pack 7 to ensure you avoid the situation in the future.

Clinical Visit Summary Appending Incorrectly SPR 60572: In certain rare circumstances, a clinical visit summary (CVS) generated from within one patient’s open chart will append to another, previously-closed patient chart. This CVS could then be provided to the other patient, whether manually or automatically via secure message.

Recommended Actions We have posted to the service portal a script that can identify the patients’ charts at risk of containing an incorrectly appended CVS. We recommended that you follow the steps in the Release Notes to run the detection script. The Release Notes can be downloaded from the Access Documentation section of the CPS Service Portal or the CEMR Service Portal. We recommend that you examine any at-risk charts identified by the script for incorrectly appended summaries. If any are found, we sugges you

  1. change the incorrect CVS to Filed in Error AND
  2. retract any secure messages that may have delivered the summaries.

Please note: only some of the charts identified by the script will contain an incorrectly appended summary. You will need to run the detection script frequently and manually remediate any issues until you upgrade to a version where the situation is corrected. A fix is available for those on Service Pack 6, and the situation is corrected in Service Pack 7.

Contact Information If you have experienced this issue or have questions, please contact Centricity Support by calling 1-888-436-8491.

Maintaining a high level of quality is our highest priority. If you have any questions, please contact us immediately per the contact information above.

Sincerely,

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

QSS Reminder for PQRS: Step 4 due December 5th

December 5, 2014

Dear Quality Submission Service Participant:

We appreciate your interest in GE Healthcare’s Quality Submission Service (QSS) program for PQRS. Please take a moment to review the details about important next steps in the Step By Step guide  (updated December 4th). We have adjusted the timeframes to allow you more time to complete your upgrade to Service Pack 7. New timelines are outlined below and are reflected in the updated guide which is available on the Service Portal.

Step 4: Due December 5th

Contract for QSS – Sign & submit the GE change order (quotation) for QSS.

Step 5: Due December 31st

Implement CQR & Plan Upgrade -

  • Implement Clincial Quality Reporting (CQR) NOTE: If you have not yet contracted for this, please: email sales  immediately. If you have contracted, please continue to work with your assigned project manager or GE resource to schedule and complete your CQR installation.
  • Plan your upgrade to Centricity Practice Solution 12.0.7 or Centricity EMR 9.8.7 or higher. NOTE: Service Pack 7 is anticipated to be available in early/mid December. If you are in need of our service pack upgrade assistance, and if you have not yet contracted for this, please email sales . If you have contracted, please continue to work with your assigned project manager or GE resource to schedule and complete your upgrade.

Step 6: Due January 31st

Complete Upgrade, Update Insurance and Authorize

  • Complete upgrade to CPS 12.0.7 or CEMR 9.8.7 or higher (once available).
  • Update insurance information.
  • Authorize submission of provider measures in CQR. NOTE: Complete the upgrade and update insurance information as early as possible; measure and provider authorization cannot be completed until those steps are performed.

As a part of step 6, you MUST update insurance information so the patient visits will be recognized for the PQRS program. Please review the PQRS insurance update instructions that we have posted to the Service Portal and join us for an informational webinar to learn how to complete this step.

Informational webinar: Capturing PQRS insurance

Date: December 12, 2014              Time: 10:30AM-11:00AM PST     1:30PM-2:00PM EST            Webinar Registration Link

If you have any questions, please contact Centricity Support at 888-436-8491 (Option 2, Option 3).

Thank you, GE Healthcare

CQR Notice: DOWNTIME December 5th-8th

December 3, 2014

Dear Clinical Quality Reporting Customer,

We want to share with you an important downtime notice for Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR). This downtime is necessary to support the continually growing volumes of data and calculation requests. The update also provides support for additional Meaningful Use workflows and makes some changes to the clinical quality measures displayed on your dashboard. Please refer to the release notes that we expect to post to the CQR section of the Centricity™ Practice Solution (CPS) Centricity EMR (CEMR) and Service Portals on Monday, December 8

Please be aware of the following:

  • We will bring CQR down for two short periods starting the evening of December 5th, and we expect the system to be available for full use by the evening of December 8th.
  • The CQR Dashboard will be unavailable Friday evening through Saturday morning.
  • CQR ingestion processes will be suspended briefly for some customers on Monday beginning at 9:00 AM PST.
  • We will be reaching out to some of you prior to the downtime to make configuration changes to your system. A project manager will contact you by Friday, if this is required for your system.
  •  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 performing this task will be posted to the Service Portal on Monday.

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

 

New CHUG Board Member!

derrick

December 1, 2014

Dear CHUG Members,

The CHUG Board of Directors is pleased to announce Derrick Bovenkamp has been elected to the Board as a member-at-large.  Derrick is a Senior Systems Administrator with Family Care Network in Bellingham, Washington and will begin his term on January 1, 2015. 

Thank you to all the members who took the time to vote.

Sincerely,

The CHUG Board of Directors

Donating Leftover Food to Charitable Causes

Original article posted on 11.04.14 by Ross Beatty http://www.beattygroup.com/donating-leftover-food-to-charitable-causes-2014-11-04/

One thing that seems to come up over and over again in the conference planning world is what happens to all of the leftover food? Does the hotel repurpose it for the hotel staff? Does it get thrown away? It seems like this is an area where there is a huge amount of waste.

We recently encountered this situation at the Centricity Healthcare User Group (CHUG) conference that our company help organize this fall and found ourselves wondering if there was something we could do. The first night of the event there was a catered welcome reception at the hotel. One of the events that we had set-up was a do it yourself cupcake decorating station. Well as the night progressed, the CHUG Board President, Terri Werner-Brown noticed that there were a lot of cupcakes that had not been touched nor were they going to get decorated. Instead of having the cupcakes go to waste she thought that it would be a nice gesture to see if the cupcakes could be donated. She asked us to contact the hotel and see if it was possible to have the cupcakes donated, which in return we were told was not possible because it was against hotel policy since it was a liability.

The thing is, it is not actually illegal to donate the leftover food, it is just against hotel policy due to their fear of liability for the donation. Many people do not know this but the Bill Emerson Food Donation Act was created to allow people to make donations to the hungry without having to worry about being liable for any harm that may come from the donation.

What does the law do?

The law protects good-faith donors from civil and criminal liability in the event that the product later causes harm to its recipients. The Emerson Act gives uniform protection to food donors who may cross state lines.

Who is protected?

The law protects food donors, including individuals and nonprofit feeding programs that act in good faith. More specifically, the law protects individuals, corporations, partnerships, organizations, associations, government entities, wholesalers, retailers, restaurateurs, caterers, farmers, gleaners, nonprofit agencies, and others.

What sort of food is protected?

The Emerson Act provides protection for food and grocery products that meet all quality and labeling standards imposed by federal, state, and local laws and regulations, even though the food may not be readily marketable due to appearance, age, freshness, grade, size, surplus, or other conditions.

Where can I find a place to donate?

Find a local food bank using the Food Bank Locator on Feeding America’s Web site. You just need to connect the local food bank and the catering firm, they will take care of all the details.

With the state of the current economy, food banks are having difficulty keeping their shelves full in order to help serve the hungry. As event planners we want to know how we can help out, especially when we have food that we could donate.

Next time you want to donate the leftover food from your event the best thing to do is contact event caterer early in the planning process and let them know this is something you want to do. Use the resources that are readily available and last but not least, do not take no for an answer!

 

African Travel Screening Protocol Kit for CPS & CEMR

GE Healthcare, in response to urgent Ebola-related recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), has published a clinical kit containing editable notifications, alerts, and clinical guidance for use with Centricity Practice Solutions software versions 11 and higher and Centricity Electronic Medical Record Software versions 9.5 and higher. This kit enables you to incorporate Ebola screening questions and clinical guidance within the Electronic Health Record.

CCC Core package is not required to leverage this content.

Log into GE Healthcare’s Portal to download the link, User Guide and Release Notes.

For CPS: https://engage.gehealthcare.com/community/en/cps/clinical-content

For CEMR: https://engage.gehealthcare.com/community/en/emr/clinical-content

MU 2: 2 Fast 2 Soon?

Those who have upgraded to EMR 9.8 or CPS 12 have done so most likely with the plans to attest for Meaningful Use Stage 2. Here we are, almost to the end of the year and many users are throwing their hands in the air. An article written in August by Healthcare IT News, has noted many meaningful users are falling short. They note “too few people really, truly grasp the magnitude of the changes compared to Stage 1.”

Read more

Meaningful Use Admin Set up for Dummies

If you are on the systems administration side of things, you have been given the daunting task to set up the administration side of CPS12 to get ready for Meaningful Use 2. Unfortunately, the easy button to do this requires many steps. Here is an admin check list for you to reach Meaningful U use 2 core measures using CPSv12: Read more

What Your Portal Should Be Doing For You

 

Communicating with your patient in a secure manner is a common answer to this question. According to Healthcare IT a patient portal “is a web-based access point that allows doctors and patients to communicate and share health information remotely, supplementing the ongoing management of the patient’s care”.

But what else should your patient portal be doing for you? Several users have compiled a list of several questions when looking at a portal.

Read more