Category: Practice Fusion EMR

Posted in In The Know Series, Insurance, MU Stage 2 and 3, My services, NY Medicaid EHR incentive program, Practice Fusion EMR, Training

Attesting to MU in New York State? Registered on NY DOH MURPH?….Well you also need to register with NYSIIS too!

Posted on by KR2Medical Billing

Background: (year 2016)

I started the attestation process for a SOLO SPECIALIST practice back in 2017. Program is NY Medicaid EHR incentive program, now CMS Promoting Interoperability Program, for the payment year 2016. (Attestation is the year after the payment year) Anyway, during the initial attestation process, in order to meet the MU, they ask you to register with the State or City , if you are located in the NYC, reporting registries; and transmit the information electronically utilizing the EHR you have at the practice.

OK, sounds simple enough. I went into the EHR (Practice Fusion) and followed their steps on how to get connected to ONLY NYSIIS, since the attestation is done for the specialist. Contacted the NYSIIS and after conducting a test connection with the Practice Fusion, the specialist was connected to TRANSMIT to NYSIIS immunizations given to the patients.

P.S. The specialist only transmits flu shots that are administered by the provider during each flu season.

Late 2017:

In October/November of 2017 the specialist received an email that ALL providers attesting to the NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program have to register with MURPH. MURPH is Meaningful use Registration for Public Health. In that system the provider registers the INTENT to attest to MU and REPORT to the specialized registries.

Ok, done that!

Now let’s remember that the provider has been transmitting to NYSIIS through Practice Fusion ALL THIS TIME.

Fast forward to June 2018:

After registering now with Healthylink NY, which is another system, the provider now received an email from DOH stating that the specialist is not in the NYSIIS system and therefore needs to register in order to meet MU. WHAT?! This took me aback. I thought that maybe I have done something wrong. NOPE! I quickly went back to Practice Fusion and clicked to Settings, making sure that the provider IS connected to NYSIIS to transmit the Immunizations. Aha! The information is there in black and white! I take a screen shot of the information and send it to DOH. Thinking that the provider was all set.

To my surprise, the next day the provider receives another email regarding this matter informing her that she also needs to register DIRECTLY with NYSIIS in order to do the attestation for NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program/ CMS Promoting Interoperability.

Lesson learned!

PCP’s should have access to NYSIIS, to report or look up vaccinations for the patients. However, for specialists that was optional, but signing up to transmit ( ex. flu vaccines) through your EHR was required.

Starting last year Providers (Specialists) need to register first on MURPH system AND starting in 2018 they need to register and obtain the NYSIIS registration number too!

Now don’t fret the registration is fairly easy and takes about 1 week.

After all said and done make sure to answer the email from DOH and give them that NYSIIS registration number, even if you already submitted your ATTESTATION on MIEPASS portal

Posted in In The Know Series, Practice Fusion EMR, Training

Practice Fusion introduces paid package for their EMR 2017/2018

Posted on by KR2Medical Billing

At the beginning of this year, Allscipts bought Practice Fusion EMR.

It’s been a long road but in the last 3 years, Practice Fusion has become the most customer friendly EMR on the market-  with over  75% of customer satisfaction. In the last year it has become certified EMR that could be used for PCMH Certification,  MIPS (Medicare QCDR registry), and Meaningful Use.

Of course the BEST thing that made Practice Fusion so attractive as an EMR, is that it was for FREE and therefore very affordable for the solo and small practices.

However,  starting in May 2017, Practice Fusion will cost you $99 per provider, per license. Yes, that is the new price!

Now you can still access the PF FREE version, but with LIMITED options.

Now its your turn: if your office is using Practice Fusion EMR , are you planning on switching to another or are you keeping it?

Posted in In The Know Series, MIPS, Practice Fusion EMR, Training

Allscripts bought Practice Fusion EHR?

Posted on by KR2Medical Billing

Let me just start with saying that in the past 2 years Practice Fusion has improved significantly, From evolving their MIPS/MU reporting and dashboard to, as of October 2017, on becoming the CMS recognized Reporting Registry.

So, I was completely blindsided when I found out, from one of my single-provider clients, that Allscripts bought out Practice Fusion on January 8, 2018 for $100 million cash “monay”. LOL

Wow…..

To add more to this news the client also stated she has received an email from Allscripts with the new monthly subscription plan for using her PF EHR. What is the price? Well in her case – $500 for 1 provider per month. This is devastating news for this single-provider office. Considering that small practice office like hers does not have the high revenue in comparison to a mid size or big group, it will become a financial burden.

She is now considering other alternatives, which honestly is hard to find, since not all EHR/EMR’s out there in the market, are 2014 or 2015 Certified EHRs.

Now it’s your turn: is your practice using Practice Fusion? Will Allscripts buying PF affect the revenue in your practice?