By now, you have heard about the E.H.R. Incentive program. You have read our article E.H.R? Meaningful Use? What does it mean for you? and you have found out that you qualify for the incentive program. Now what do you do? The first step is to get your E.H.R certification key from Practice-Web. You will need one for your practice and one for each qualifying provider, you will also need Practice-Web’s E.H.R version certification number.
After you have all of your certification numbers now it is time to register with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. You can go to the registration site directly by clicking here. You will get to a point where you will need to create a specific user name and password to be able to continue log in. I called The CMS website support (888-734-6433) for more information on this user credential process. I found that when I called I did not have to wait very long for a representative to answer and they were extremely helpful in answering my questions. Once you have registered on the CMS.gov website in a matter of days you should receive an email from your state Medicaid office. Unfortunately, this is where the process is no longer easy because now you have to deal directly with your state Medicaid office and we all know just how much we like dealing with them. In the email you are sent you will receive the information for the website that you will use to report your meaningful use and attestation. I was notified by the CMS that every state has a different website and every state has different deadlines for reporting meaningful use. If you can effectively communicate with your state Medicaid office then you should be able to get through this process with minimal stress.
We know that many of our customers have been approached by some E.H.R consultants that have been very pushy about “registering now, before it’s too late” or “Hurry before the program runs out of money!” I am here to tell you, CONTACT YOUR STATE to find out what your deadline is, the deadlines are different for every state. Please remember there is more than $17 billion available for incentive payments, less than 10% of dental offices will even qualify for the program and of that 10% not everyone will receive the maximum allowed amount for incentive payment. There is plenty of money available! You can register on your own. If you register on your own when you do get your incentive payment you get to keep 100% off it. If you decide to hire an E.H.R. consultant be prepared to pay up to 25% of your incentive payment to them. I would like to offer one final word of advice. If you are going to go for the E.H.R incentive program you have to go for it 100%. If you are not serious about using the E.H.R features in Practice-Web and showing progressive improvement in your “meaningful use” then your future Medicaid payments will be garnished to compensate for incentive payments received especially when you get to Stage 2 meaningful use, so do not do it if you’re not completely dedicated to meeting the meaningful use requirements for the full term of the program (which is 5 years for Medicaid and 4 for Medicare).
I hope the information provided helps you make an informed decision and if you are confident about going for the incentive program, we wish you the best of luck 🙂