Stark exemptions for EHRs
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed two final rules regarding physician adoption of e-prescribing technology and electronic health records (EHR).
A rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) established two new exceptions to the "Stark" law to allow protected donors to make certain nonmonetary donations of hardware, software and related training services to physicians for e-prescribing and for EHR purposes, according to ReedSmith Health Industry Washington Watch. Protected donors under the Stark exception for e-prescribing technology include hospitals, group practices, prescription drug plan sponsors and Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations, and for the exception for EHR technology include any entities that furnish "designated health services." A rule issued by the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) establishes two new safe harbors under the federal anti-kickback statute for similar nonmonetary donations - covering certain hardware, software, or information technology and training services (1) used solely to receive and transmit electronic prescription information, or (2) used predominantly to create, maintain, transmit, or receive EHRs.
Additionally, the federal government certified 18 EHR vendors.
o HealthMatics EHR by Allscripts
o TouchWorks by Allscripts
o PowerChart by Cerner Corporation
o Companion EMR by Companion Technologies
o eClinicalWorks by eClinicalWorks, LLC
o Intergy by Emdeon Practice Services
o e-MDs Solution Series by e-MDS
o EpicCare Ambulatory EMR by Epic Systems Corporation
o Centricity EMR by GE Healthcare
o EncounterPRO by JMJ Technologies, Inc.
o Horizon Ambulatory Care by McKesson Corporation
o mMD.Net EHR by MCS-Medical Communication Systems, Inc.
o MedcomSoft Record by MedcomSoft Inc.
o WebChart by Medical Informatics Engineering, Inc.
o Misys EMR by Misys Healthcare Systems
o NextGen EMR by NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc.
o myNightingale Physician Workstation by Nightingale Informatix Corp.
o Practice Partner Patient Records by Practice Partner
Two products were pre-market conditionally certified awaiting customer verification of implementation. Those products are:
o MEDENT by Community Computer Service, Inc.
o Medical Practice Management Client/Server by LSS Data Systems