Radiology Provider Achieves Meaningful Use, Receives US Stimulus Incentives

A radiology provider has successfully complied with the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) federal ambulatory meaningful use (MU) regulations and receive stimulus incentives totaling USD 216,000, representing approximately one-third of the total incentives they expect to receive under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Merge Healthcare (Chicago, IL, USA), a provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions, announced that Regional Medical Imaging (RMI; Flint, MI, USA), became its first client to achieve MU.

“For RMI, there is a strong business case for meaningful use, but what’s more important is that this is going to help us become better physicians so that our patients get better care,” said Randy Hicks, MD, MBA, CEO of RMI. “With Merge RIS [radiology information system] we’ll witness better and more prompt access to medical records, less redundant testing, and ultimately fewer medical errors across our five locations in Michigan.”

“And while we were early adopters of MU, we knew it was about more than just collecting and reporting on data,” continued Dr. Hicks. “It’s about building an infrastructure that will enable continuity of care and a seamless transfer of patient information.”

“Regional Medical Imaging is an organization that is doing what it takes to move healthcare forward,” said Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. “They are pioneers who very early on realized meaningful use does apply to radiology and that there is inherent value that comes from adopting a meaningful use strategy. More importantly, RMI took the necessary steps to achieve it. We congratulate RMI and look forward to continuing our partnership with them as they provide state-of-the-art imaging to doctors and patients across Michigan.”

Merge RIS v7.0 provides a radiology-specific electronic health record (EHR) with complete MU certification. It enables radiologists to capture and report on the metrics required to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs without disrupting their traditional workflow. With Merge RIS v7.0, radiologists can qualify to receive up to USD 44,000 in stimulus incentives, per eligible provider, as well as avoid future penalties that will come from not meeting meaningful use.

Merge RIS v7.0 functionality includes enhanced data security, expanded reporting that enables clnicians to automatically trend clinical data and report on meaningful use measures, new clinical decision support, the clinical exchange of health information through industry standard formats, ePrescribing, and a patient portal that empowers patients to access their records at their convenience. This new functionality was built natively within the intuitive, web-based Merge RIS so that any radiology practice can achieve meaningful use attestation in a manner that works for their specialty. Merge RIS is an important facet of an overall range of integrated systems created specifically for imaging providers.

Related Links:
Merge Healthcare
Regional Medical Imaging