Document Capture Helps Health Care Providers Put Meaning into Electronic Health Record Utilization - Sponsored Whitepaper

Document Capture Helps Health Care Providers Put Meaning into Electronic Health Record Utilization

Executive Summary Interest in technology is at an all-time high, as health care providers are working to implement electronic health records and receive their share of the incentive funds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This white paper explores how document capture systems can help providers optimize their EHR systems in an effort to achieve the “meaningful use” that is required by the landmark legislation.

Introduction An old Irish proverb states, “You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.”

The thought quite possibly could have been on legislators’ minds as they came up with the HITECH provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).The legislation, which provides about $19 billion in incentive funds, is meant to jump- start the move toward electronic health records (EHRs), which up until this point has remained largely a rhetorical exercise for many health care organizations.

Under the program, hospitals can collect an incentive payment calculated as the sum of a $2 million base amount plus Medicare discharge related payments. And physicians can qualify for a reimbursement of $44,000 to $64,000 dollars. Hospitals can begin to qualify for the incentives October 1, 2010,