Physician Using Ingenix CareTracker Becomes One of the First in the U.S. to Demonstrate Meaningful Use of HealthIT

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., April 18, 2011 – Douglas Foreman, D.O., a family physician in Warwick, R.I., will be among the first physicians in the U.S. to attest to meeting Phase 1 requirements for Medicare Meaningful Use of health information technology as defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Today is the first day physicians can attest to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in order to receive Medicare incentive payments provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

To achieve this, Dr. Foreman used the Ingenix CareTracker electronic health record (EHR) system, which features a graphical Meaningful Use Dashboard created by Ingenix to help physicians monitor progress toward meeting Meaningful Use objectives and take corrective action to improve quality of care as they work to qualify for federal health IT incentives.

“The Ingenix CareTracker EHR system supports my ability to provide better patient care and has made it much easier for me to demonstrate Meaningful Use,” said Foreman. “The Meaningful Use Dashboard shows me exactly where I’m meeting or exceeding requirements and in which areas I need to focus more attention. Using Ingenix CareTracker technology gives me more confidence in managing my practice knowing that we do the best job possible for our patients and have the tools to continually improve the quality of our care. Ingenix has provided us with experts in Meaningful Use who have provided feedback, support and education to make this possible.”

ARRA provides $19 billion in Medicare incentive payments to physicians who demonstrate Meaningful Use of an EHR system. To qualify, physicians must meet prescribed benchmarks, including 15 Core criteria that all eligible physicians must meet and five of ten Menu-set criteria, for 90 consecutive days. Dr. Foreman met his criteria between January 1 and March 31. 

“The Meaningful Use Dashboard enables Ingenix CareTracker users to instantly access health intelligence and take action to enhance patient care,” said Steve Tolle, senior vice president of physician solutions at Ingenix. “With these innovative tools, Ingenix is already helping physicians to successfully qualify for federal health IT incentive payments. The health analytics capabilities that Ingenix CareTracker delivers to physician desktops will be even more important in light of recent guidance from the federal government on Accountable Care Organizations, which highlight the need for the ability to identify and reduce gaps in care in an increasingly collaborative environment.”

Ingenix recently announced the company is changing its name to OptumInsight.

The Meaningful Use Dashboard, which is now installed for all of the more than 11,000 users of the Ingenix CareTracker system, illustrates the percentage of each physician’s patient visits that meet requirements toward each Meaningful Use rule. In addition, the Meaningful Use Dashboard provides links to the text of the relevant Meaningful Use criteria, and access to Ingenix CareTracker documentation and training modules. Users can also drill down from the Meaningful Use Dashboard into their patient records to identify successful and missed cases, and ultimately correct inefficient workflow processes or proactively reach out to patients.
 
Ingenix CareTracker is a family of cloud-based services that enable physicians to enhance patient care and manage their practices more efficiently. The Ingenix CareTracker system includes a CCHIT Certified 2011 Ambulatory EHR solution that saves physicians time and money by helping them access clinical information and patient medical history at the point of care. Ingenix CareTracker features connections to thousands of labs, hospitals, pharmacies and commercial and government payers. The system helps physicians conduct medication and allergy verification and interaction checks, electronic prescribing, and quality measurement and reporting. Ingenix CareTracker also fully integrates with all of the operational functions of a physician practice, simplifying administrative tasks such as billing, scheduling and documentation.

Ingenix, which recently announced it will become OptumInsight, is a leading provider of health information, technology and consulting services. Organizations, institutions, businesses and government agencies that comprise the health care system depend on Ingenix solutions and insights to improve their performance. Visit www.ingenix.com for more information.