Medicare offers incentives

The federal Medicare program wants to entice Nevada physicians with financial incentives to participate in a demonstration project. The object is to study electronic health systems and adopt online health records systems.

Hospital administrators and doctors in private practice attended a demonstration program at University of Nevada, Reno, recently to hear details.

But a key component goes missing: A Coalition to promote the program and an entity willing to spearhead the project.

"We're trying to identify organizations that can take the lead," says Dr. Maurizio Trevisan, executive vice chancellor for health services at UNR, who agreed to host the initial presentation.

To prime the pump, the program will visit 40 communities throughout the state. The Reno area is targeted to be one of 12 demonstration sites.

Rather than a give a grant at the beginning, the program is structured to provide incentive payments along the way, says

Dave Sayen, regional administrator with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The point, he says, is to demonstrate that it's possible to create a payment plan that works. For the five-year test project, it seeks 100 participants and 100 control sites (Those practices still can install the electronic health records system, but are not eligible for the financial incentives.)

Electronic health records can reduce medical errors and improve medical care, say Medicare officials. Many doctors still store patient patients' records on paper.

The deadline is end of May and the 12 test sites will be announced in mid-June.

Once the project is fully under way, as many as 1,200 small- and medium-sized primary-care physician practices across the nation will receive Medicare incentive payments in exchange for adopting certified electronic health record systems.

Participating medical practices will be measured by performance on specific clinical quality measures. Bonus payments will be based on how many electronic functions the practice puts in use.

Participants must have a certified program in place after two years to continue the test. Their program must document visits, lab tests, and prescriptions. Payment is based on both degree and quality of electronic record keeping.

During the first year, participants can earn $5,000 per physician or $25,000 per practice. The second year, participants can earn $8,000 per physician or $40,000 per practice. During the last three years, participants can earn to $15,000 per physician or $75,000 per practice each year.

Total payments under the demonstration may be up to $58,000 per physician or $290,000 per practice a total of $3.5 million over five years.

The program's Web site can be found at www.hhs.gov/healthit.