PROVIDENCE, RI – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island’s “Quality Counts” program to support physician adoption of electronic health record systems will begin monitoring 10 quality performance measurements for enrolled primary care physicians in 2009.
For each target met, PCPs can earn up to $1,200 in one-time incentives for the year, according to Augustine Monocchia, MD, CMO for BCBSRI.
The 80 PCPs enrolled in the program, begun nearly two years ago, receive $5,000 toward the purchase of an EHR system. The program subsidizes a certain amount of money each month for two years for EHR system maintenance costs.
The health plan has three other EHR programs. In the summer of 2007, BCBSRI introduced a two-tier higher fee schedule increase for PCPs – targeted because of their historically lower reimbursements compared to specialists – who implement EHR systems.
BCBSRI has supported the Electronic Health Record of Rhode Island (EHRRI) by funding more than $1 million toward the training and support of EHR systems for small physician practices. It also supports the Center for Health Service Innovation, a subsidiary of the Quality Improvement Organization, to help physicians evaluate their readiness for EHRs.
“Our philosophy is the use of EHR connected to other EHRs is a proxy for healthcare quality and patient safety,” said Monocchia. “The goal is to provide medical information about our members and Rhode Island residents where and when it’s needed at the right time.”
“BCBSA and our plans strongly support the vision of a fully interoperable system with an EHR in every doctors office,” said Justine Handelman, director of federal relations for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA).
BCBSA CEO Scott Serota serves on the American Health Information Community, which is working to advance this vision, and Blue Plans are promoting interoperability through, among other things, state health information exchanges and provider adoption of health IT by enabling access to e-prescribing and EHRs.