The holiday season can be overwhelming for many practices. With patients trying to use up their insurance benefits for the year or families coming in to get new glasses for the holiday season, you may find your practice overbooked! But this season, you might be a lot busier for a different reason.
As 2014 quickly approaches, many practices are getting ready for meaningful use. There isn’t much time left to participate in the program to receive incentives, and Stage 2 will require that your practice has a 2014 certified EHR. So whether you are preparing for stage 1 or stage 2, most of you should be looking for a certified EHR.
As you shop around for software, you’ll come across two options: a complete certified EHR or a modular-based certified EHR. There is a lot of confusion between the two, and we’re here to give you a quick breakdown.
Modular-Based Certified EHR
Modular-based certification requires adopting multiple different products with modular certification to meet all meaningful use requirements. For example, pairing a modular ePrescribing system with a modular EHR.
- You can continue to use products that you've already purchased and currently use in your practice.
- Modules can cause confusion when you need to determine whether your EHR is certified for meaningful use:
- You will need to collect certification numbers for each product in use and submit them as a package solution.
- Products will be accessed by ONC as a comprehensive solution and if they met the criteria, ONC will issue a new certification number that you will use to attest.
- It is not the individual vendors responsibility to make sure that each module is certified.
- You will need to be familiar with ONC certification requirements.
- You have freedom to choose vendors for each module.
- You can add new software with new functionality with existing software
- Modules might require more training because of various systems which can be inefficient and costly.
Complete Certified EHR
These systems have been tested by a federally approved certification organization through the vendor. They meet all government requirements, and offer the technological capability, functionality, and most importantly, security to meet all meaningful use criteria.
- The vendor does all the work for you. You can start the meaningful use program whenever you’re ready. If you are starting Stage 2, it is a good idea to get a written statement from your vendor to indicate that the product is verified for Stage 2.
- Seamless user interface, so there is no need to switch between systems.
- Can be less customizable – you get all the features the software comes with.
- Stable Security to maintain data confidentially within one system.
- You have the ability to share info with other systems.
Understanding the differences between a modular and complete certified EHR is the first step in your decision making process. The next step is to access your practice’s needs so you can determine which solution will fulfill your unique needs. How efficient is your practice workflow? Do you already use multiple systems? Are they already certified for Stage 2? Or perhaps you are new to meaningful use and can’t afford the time to make sure that all modules will integrate with each other?
If you do not want to worry about integrations and shopping for multiple products, you are looking for an EHR that has complete certification, check out Uprise! Not only are we an all-in-one solution, we are also certified for Stage 2 Meaningful Use. Whether you are planning to take on Stage 1 or Stage 2 in 2014, Uprise has you covered.
