meridianEMR® Customers Start Receiving Meaningful Use Incentive Payments

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Aug 05, 2011, 09:15 ET

LIVINGSTON, N.J., Aug. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- meridianEMR, the market leader in EHR for Urology, announced today that Somerset Urological Associates in Somerville, New Jersey was the first meridianEMR customer to receive stage 1 Meaningful Use incentive payment from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). On July 22, 2011 Somerset Urological Associates received a total of $54,000 for three physicians via direct deposit. The group is awaiting an additional $18,000 for the fourth physician who also attested to Meaningful Use at the busy Urology practice.

Dr. Keith A. Harmon of Somerset Urological Associates commented on the ease of the process. "It was amazing that we qualified and received our checks so quickly. It was made easy by meridianEMR and our administrator's integration of the few added items we needed to do in our everyday workflow."

To date 14 meridianEMR customers have reported receiving their Meaningful Use payments, totaling $252,000. 34 meridianEMR customers have reported attesting to stage 1 Meaningful Use, totaling $612,000 and counting in incentives. meridianEMR doctors and staff have cited that their integrated, automatic meridianEMR Meaningful Use Tracking Board and support team were a critical part of the process.

"$18,000 per physician made Meaningful Use attestation a top priority and well worth the effort for our practice. We could not have attested as quickly and easily without the help of the meridianEMR. The meridianEMR MU Tracking Board was an extremely useful tool in helping us monitor our progress on a daily basis. It provided us with all of the necessary metrics by physician, including core and optional items. We all loved it. The Meridian support staff was a superb partner in providing informed guidance whenever we needed it. We could not have asked for anything more. We know from colleagues that many other EHR vendors do not provide this level of support and actually charge for Meaningful Use tools and assistance," explained Gary Casino, Executive Director, Somerset Urological Associates.

The process of attesting to Meaningful Use is greatly simplified by using the meridianEMR Meaningful Use Tracking Board, which is a personal tracking board seamlessly integrated into each client's EHR system, free of charge. This data-rich, interactive tool analyzes and calculates each core and each optional item in the Meaningful Use criteria automatically and in real time, providing an easy-to-read visual snapshot of each physician's current status.

Michael Custode, CEO of meridianEMR commented, "We developed our Meaningful Use Tracking Board anticipating client needs surrounding the ARRA HITECH EHR requirements for Meaningful Use. Attesting to Meaningful Use is mandatory in order to receive the incentive of $18,000 per Medicare provider in 2011. Medicare physicians who meet the CMS criteria may be eligible to receive $44,000 in incentives per physician over five years. It is a priority for us to partner with our clients to help them maximize their incentives and achieve their Meaningful Use goals during this multiyear process."

"The main benefit of meridianEMR has always been the quality and effectiveness of our product, which helps Urologists achieve improved patient care and greater practice efficiency. Early adopters have been reaping these rewards for some time. Now those who have attested to Meaningful Use are also benefitting from government incentive programs, which is an important bonus that adds to practice profitability. First year government incentives are significantly more than the licensing cost for meridianEMR. With our first client and many others since then having received stage 1 incentive payments, we hope all our clients will be inspired to begin or complete the process with the help of our free, integrated tools and staff support," concluded Mr. Custode.

About meridianEMR

meridianEMR is the market leader in EHR for Urology, offering an interoperable solution compatible with physician practice management systems and advanced healthcare analytics. The meridianEMR, Inc. application is ONC-ATCB certified as a complete EHR, CCHIT certified® until 2014, and Surescripts certified. The interoperability of the meridianEMR software is driven by the proprietary mXchange™ technology, which services all meridianEMR clients through a private, highly secure, real-time data exchange network. meridianEMR has a user base of over 1,000 practicing Urologists nationwide composed of a wide range of practice sizes.

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