EHR Incentive Program for Behavioral Health/IDD Providers

Limited Funding Opportunity; Apply Between May 1-31, 2018! 

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Rural Health (ORH) and Division of Medical Assistance (DMA) partnered with the N.C. Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA) to launch a program that will assist behavioral health, mental health, and intellectual development and disability practices with purchasing electronic health record (EHR) technology and establishing connectivity to the state-designated health information exchange, NC HealthConnex.

 

Pursuant to N.C. Session Law 2017-57, health care providers that accept Medicaid reimbursement for the provision of health care services must connect to NC HealthConnex, which is housed within the N.C. Department of Information Technology (DIT). Physicians, hospitals and mid-level practitioners that receive Medicaid reimbursement and currently have electronic health record (EHR) technology must connect by June 1, 2018. All other providers that receive funds from the State for the provision of health care services must connect by June 1, 2019, even if they do not currently have an EHR system.

This program is designed to support health care practices that:

(i) are Medicaid-enrolled outpatient practices that have an active NPI number in NCTracks;

(ii) provide behavioral health, mental health, or intellectual and developmental disorder services (See taxonomy list);

(iii) attest that they have not received funding for EHR adoption or meaningful use;

(iv) attest that they do not have electronic health record technology or attest that they do have a practice management system as of January 1, 2018, that could be upgraded to an electronic health record; and

(v) for calendar year 2017, had behavioral health, mental health, or intellectual and developmental disorder services providers make up 75 percent of their affiliated health care providers based on NC TRACKS data.

 

Note: The NC HIEA strongly recommends that providers choose a vendor that is already engaged in the NC HealthConnex connection process to ensure that they meet the technical requirements for connectivity. See list of vendors on How to Connect. If the vendor you’re working with is not currently on this list, please provide the Technical Specs document that requires EHR software that is minimally capable of sending HL7 messages, version 2 and higher.

 

For more information and to apply for this program, visit the Office of Rural Health website. Applications close May 31, and are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.

 

Diabetes Registry Open for Registration to Support MU Attestation

 

The NC HIEA is pleased to announce that effective June 1, 2018, the N.C. Diabetes Specialized Public Health Registry, developed in partnership with the Division of Public Health, will be available for population health purposes. Full Participants of NC HealthConnex are eligible to participate in the registry by signing the NC HealthConnex Diabetes Registry Form. Data submitted to NC HealthConnex will be included in the Diabetes Registry, as appropriate. No additional data submission from Participants is required. The NC HealthConnex Diabetes Registry supports attestation for Meaningful Use Stage 3 and Modified Stage 2 for eligible hospitals, eligible critical access hospitals, and eligible professionals, as well as Medicare Quality Payment Program Advancing Care Information for eligible clinicians. For more information, click here. Questions? Contact hiea@nc.gov.  

 

 

Hospitals, physicians, and mid-level physicians that have electronic health record technology and receive funds from Medicaid for the provision of health care services are eligible to apply for an extension. The purpose of the extension request process is to allow an extension of time to complete the connection process for providers that have demonstrated a “good faith effort” to comply with the State’s requirements. In many instances, there is a delay due to factors outside of a health care provider’s control. Note: This process is not a waiver or exemption from the law and does not place any provider currently in onboarding with NC HealthConnex “on hold.” It simply allows more time for the technical onboarding to occur to be in compliance with the HIE Act. For more information, visit the NC HealthConnex extension process.

Quick Links:

 

The NC HIEA participant list is growing rapidly as we approach June. For a complete list of “live in production” and “in process” NC HealthConnex participants as of May 2, click here.

 

The Quarter 2 DSM Provider Directory coming soon. Participant Account Administrators should be on the lookout for the next iteration of the direct secure messaging (DSM) provider directory to review and update DSM addresses. The HIEA will then take the updated file and make available in the clinical portal or via .csv upon request.

 

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