Modernizing Medicine, Inc., the creator of the Electronic Medical Assistant® (EMA™), a cloud-based, specialty-specific electronic medical record (EMR) system, responded today to recent announcements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and leading health insurers, regarding the concerted push away from fee-for-service healthcare models in favor of outcome-based reimbursements.
CMS has announced that 85 percent of Medicare payments in 2016 could be based on quality of care, and that number could grow to 90 percent in 2018. Additionally, a UnitedHealth Group executive was reported to have said that the company plans to increase value-based payments to doctors and hospitals by 20 percent this year, forecasting over $40 billion in payments tied to value or quality of care.
“This major shift in payment models requires the right tools and reporting systems if physicians and provider organizations want to safeguard against penalties from volume-based medicine and benefit from related incentives,” said Modernizing Medicine’s CEO and Co-founder Dan Cane in a statement issued following the recent announcements from CMS and HHS. “Modernizing Medicine is deeply committed to the physicians and healthcare professionals we serve, and we believe that health information technology vendors share a large part of the responsibility to ease the impending transition toward quality reporting and outcomes-based reimbursements.”
Unlike EMRs using templates or macros, EMA was designed with unique structured data technology that handles the Value-based Payment Modifier and enables quality reporting including Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) program reporting. Cane believes Modernizing Medicine is in a market leading position in providing a system that addresses this burden for physicians, enabling them to focus on practicing medicine without fear of the upcoming changes.
Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer Michael Sherling, M.D., M.B.A., echoed Cane’s sentiment about the potentially huge implications of the impending move toward payment models that tie to quality of care.
“While the new mandates signify a big step toward providing improved quality of care, without tools to support and streamline quality reporting, these new payment models may constitute a substantial hurdle for private practice in this country,” said Sherling. “Since Modernizing Medicine’s inception we have focused heavily on accurately documenting patient encounters through structured data. This facilitates the ability to track patient outcomes and report quality of care in a way that doesn’t slow down physician productivity. We would urge providers to consider the implications of these new payment guidelines, and ensure that they are working with technologies that will support both their practice and the forthcoming revised payment structure.”
“With rich capabilities for PQRS reporting, Meaningful Use attestation and ICD-10 coding built in, EMA is ready for the changes in healthcare ahead,” said Cane. “The more than 30,000 physicians and health providers across the nation who use EMA are on solid ground.”
About Modernizing Medicine
Modernizing Medicine® is transforming how healthcare information is created, consumed and utilized in order to increase efficiency and improve outcomes. Our flagship product, Electronic Medical Assistant® (EMA™), is a cloud-based, specialty-specific electronic medical records (EMR) system built by practicing physicians. Available as a native iPad application and from almost any web-enabled Mac or PC, EMA adapts to each provider’s unique style of practice. This ICD-10 ready EMR system is available for the dermatology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, urology and plastic and cosmetic surgery markets and used by more than 4,800 physicians in the United States and its territories. The Modernizing Medicine family of companies also provides specialty-specific billing, inventory management and group purchasing services.
For more information, contact:
Tara Auclair Ryan
561-880-2998 x321
Tara.ryan@modmed.com
Ryan Lilly
978-518-4533
rlilly@matternow.com
www.matternow.com
