I am a physician in a 110 physician multispecialty group. We are part of a 400+ physician health system. I've been assigned the job of getting the clinic to a level of usage of our EMR (that we have had for 9 years) that will qualify for the incentive payments. I would like to be able to use this promise of financial reward to get the physicians in the clinic to make better usage of the EMR.
However, my concern is that even if we get to a level of usage that will qualify for the money, the physicians will never get the money. This is because our pay from the health system is based on fair market value for our production based on RVU's. This probably isn't unlike many other clinics in the country. I think I can safely assume that the extra reimbursement for services rendered to Medicare and Medicaid patients won't be tied to extra RVU's for the services. If that is the case the physicians will never see the money and the health system will keep it to avoid paying the doctors more than fair market value. If, however, the money is sent separately with it earmarked as incentive pay it will likely flow through to the doctors.
My question is, does any one know in what form the payments will be made? Will the money that comes into the institution or health system be clearly designated as a payment to the physician separate from the reimbursement for CPT codes?
Doug Duncan MD
Springfield, MO