Download Dear Colleague - East Jefferson General Hospital

Dear Colleague,
I would like to provide an update of the ambulatory EHR offering being subsidized by East
Jefferson General Hospital. This letter represents a follow-up of my initial letter of 4 March
2011 (available via the EJGH MD Portal) and represents refinement of the EJGH – Cerner
PowerWorks EHR support agreement based on comments from physicians and on the need to
further help physicians along the road to EHR implementation success. I am also hoping to clear
up many misconceptions currently making the rounds, often spread by competing EHR
salesmen.
As you are probably aware, EJGH is subsidizing the adoption by the EJGH Medical Staff of
Cerner’s Ambulatory EHR (PowerWorks ASP) offering. A physician or practice will receive 85%
of the implementation cost if the practice is a member of the Gulf South Quality Network
(GSQN or Clinical Integration (CI)) and 75% if the practice is not a GSQN member for the Core
Setups listed below. To date, Cerner’s ambulatory solutions represent over 100 providers in the
New Orleans area with 12 EJGH related practices slated to go live between now and October.
Outlined below is the pricing breakdown of PowerWorks.
EMR/Practice Management Bundle
Core Setup (per provider)
1st provider*
2nd - 9th providers
$6,500
$1,500
Post Conversion & Monthly Cost (per month per provider)
1-3 providers
$595
4-6 providers
$565
7-10 providers
$535
One time, Post Conversion Assessment**
$2,000
*includes EMR, PM, EDI services, patient education, and a patient
portal
*includes hosting services, upgrades, maintenance, and support as well as
costs for 4 days onsite training and travel costs for PM and EMR implementation, based
on 3 providers or less in the practice. Larger practices or practices needing additional
resources will incur additional costs.
**The Post Conversion Assessment is a ONE TIME COST, travel IS included in this cost
EMR only bundle
Core Setup (per provider)
1st provider
$5,500
2nd - 9th providers
$1,000
Post Conversion & Monthly Cost (per month perprovider)
1-3 providers
$375
4-6 providers
$355
7-10 providers
$335
One time, Post Conversion Assessment**
$2,000
*includes EMR, patient education, and a patient portal
*includes hosting services, upgrades, maintenance, and support as well as
costs for 4 days onsite training and travel costs for PM and EMR implementation, based
on 3 providers or less in the practice. Larger practices or practices needing additional
resources will incur additional costs.
** The Post Conversion Assessment is a ONE TIME COST, travel IS included in this cost
Optional Services
Demographic Data Conversion
$3,500
Automated Messaging (per transaction)
0.24
Patient Statements (per transaction)
0.68
Eligibility Checking (per transaction)
0.35
*Per Transaction Services have a $250 per provider setup costs
The final and most exciting piece to this offering is the Cerner eHUB implementation. This will
provide all PowerWorks practices the ability to seamlessly connect to East Jefferson at no extra
cost. By not electing to go with Cerner’s ambulatory EHR, there is a third party application cost
to connect to the Cerner eHUB via the HealthDock appliance that is $1000 setup fee and $50
per month per physician license. It should also be noted that often the non-Cerner EHR
vendor has a steep cost associated with connecting as well. EJGH will prioritize all
PowerWorks practices for connection to the eHUB. This, along with other technical aspects of
the connection on the practice end, means that connection to the eHub by non-Cerner EHRs
will likely be delayed by up to 12 months.
The East Jefferson eHUB implementation is a 3 phased approach. The anticipated eHub go live
for phase 1 is will occur within the coming quarter year and we will keep you updated on the
timelines of phase 2 and phase 3 as the plans become more solidified.
Page 2 of 4
Phase 1 will consist of East Jefferson sending discreet field lab results, radiology results, and
documents (ex. op notes, discharge summaries, other transcribed documents) to your office.
This data will populate your EMR seamlessly in a chart format from this point forward.
Phase 2 will consist of discharge allergies, medications, and problems from EJGH inpatient
encounters being sent to your office as discreet pieces of data. From this point forward you will
not have to rely on the patient’s memory to determine what happened during and after their
hospital stay. The information will flow directly into your PowerWorks EHR for review.
Phase 3 will consist of sending orders and continuity of care documents (CCD) from your office
to East Jefferson. This will eliminate the need to send the paper lab requisition forms or faxes to
EJGH.
In an effort to make sure that the physician practice knows what costs, in addition to the EHR
costs, will be incurred prior to or during EHR go-live, Cerner and EJGH will supply a free
hardware / software / internet “gap analysis” during the contracting process. We have
partnered with a local IT support company, BCI, to perform this analysis. Those EJGHPowerWorks clients who choose to have ongoing BCI support after the initial gap analysis will
need to enter into a separate contract with BCI. An informational handout concerning the BCI
offerings, payment plans and services is available and a copy is attached to this letter.
I urge all of you to act now to solidify you plans for acquisition of an EHR, if you have not
already done so. Practices all over the country using PowerWorks ASP and PowerChart Office
have received their first $18,000 payment from CMS. EJGH has made significant efforts to
design a program for EHR implementation that I believe is solid and will take a lot of the guess
work out of the process. However, the window for Meaningful Use qualification is closing fast,
jeopardizing achievement of the full $44,000 compensation package unless you act now.
Christopher N. Barrilleaux, MD
CMIO, EJGH
For more information please contact:
Dr. Barrilleaux
[email protected]
504-456-7484
Lana Gee
[email protected]
504-456-8142
Attachment: BCI Offer
Page 3 of 4
Andy Rellihan
[email protected]
816-885-9257
Discount and Special Offerings For East Jefferson General Hospital
Physicians:
• Professional Services: 35% discount off standard rates
• Aggressive payment options: 0% interest* on all hardware for 5 years.
Other options will be considered as opportunity grows. (*for those who
qualify)
• Demo equipment for physicians to use on a trial basis to better determine
what fits the physicians workflow and needs
• Pop and swap: BCI will be able to provide loaner equipment in cases where
the hardware is deemed inoperable for a predetermined time. (I will
discuss the appropriate terms with you and Jim as we move forward).
• More detailed pricing arrangements for ongoing support will be available
Contact:
Tom Lowery | Account Manager
3636 S I-10 Service Rd West. Ste 302 | Metairie, LA | 70001
(504) 212-6666 direct | (504) 212-6678 fax | (985)276-0295 cell
Page 4 of 4