CalHIPSO California State REC Announces Partnership With GE And Other Medical Record Vendors

GE has been around in the medical record business for a long time and they are pretty much at the Cadillac end when it comes to price so if you like their Centricity Products it might behoove you to visit a REC center to where they are listed as a partner as with licensing contracts, it could offer some savings for you as an MD making a purchase and it wouldn’t hurt to inquire about any licensing provisions they have that might apply. CalHIPSO is the statewide REC center and omits Los Angeles and Orange Counties as they have their own groups.

From the Website:

“CalHIPSO is made up of ten Local Extension Centers (LECs) around the state that bring health information technology (HIT) expertise to local communities.

Our Local Extension Centers (LECs) offer in-depth knowledge of their local areas and provider communities. Our LECs are made up of local clinic consortia, regional medical societies, health plans and other groups that have the ability to assist providers in a community.”

In addition to GE, several other medical record vendors are established with CalHIPSO. In addition they have an information page that helps with the Attestation that began on April 18th, this is where you confirm you have met the Medicare Incentives and qualify for meaningful use incentives. If you are in California and located outside of Los Angeles and Orange Counties you can find more information here on how to sign up. BD

In Florida one group put together a video to show what their activities are with helping doctors adopt medical records.

Regional Extension Center (REC) Working in Florida-What the Centers Are Doing to Help Physicians With Electronic Medical Records

BARRINGTON, Ill. – April 29, 2011 – Today, GE Healthcare announced that it will work with the California Health Information Partnership and Services Organization (CalHIPSO), to achieve its goals of simplifying the electronic medical record (EMR) adoption process for its members. Though RECs have varying business models, each is envisioned as a key support component for smaller physician practices in making the transition to EMR solutions. There are currently 60 government-funded Regional Extension Centers across the U.S and GE Healthcare aligns with nearly half.
“We are very pleased to enter into a partnership with GE on behalf of CalHIPSO members,” said Speranza Avram, Executive Director, CalHIPSO. “We look forward to working together with GE to bring the benefits of a leading edge EHR product together with robust Regional Extension Center services for the benefit of our members around California.”

The original federal government grant funded the extension center’s operation at 90% for the first two years so that they could support a minimum of 1,042 providers in the selection, implementation and Meaningful Use of electronic medical records (EMRs). Under the federal government’s ARRA HITECH Act, physicians are eligible to receive anywhere from $44,000 to $65,000 by demonstrating Meaningful Use of a Certified EMR. Recently, this two-year period was extended to four- years, at the same 90% level, to allow more time for RECs to assist providers in their achievement of Meaningful Use.

Another REC that recently selected GE Healthcare is Tri-State Regional Health Information Technology Extension Center, which awarded GE Healthcare its Five Star vendor designation.