Netsmart offers meaningful use readiness assessment service

Great River, N.Y. — Netsmart Technologies, Inc., a provider of enterprise-wide software and services for health and human services organizations, is offering Meaningful Use readiness assessment services to help its customers prepare their organizations to meet the criteria and receive Medicaid and Medicare incentive funds for the Meaningful Use of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) under provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

Netsmart's partner for the readiness service is Boughtin and Orndoff Consulting, LLC, a nationally-recognized expert in process management and eligibility criteria for Meaningful Use. With the service, Netsmart is providing yet another opportunity for its behavioral healthcare provider and local health department customers to chart a path toward meeting Meaningful Use criteria and qualify for incentive funds.

"Providing the readiness services further solidifies our goal of being a complete, single-source Meaningful Use partner," said James L. Conway, chief executive officer, Netsmart Technologies. "In addition to offering a Complete ARRA-Certified EHR, we're committed to ensuring our customers have a plan to attain Meaningful Use that is organized, cost-effective and manageable."

Boughtin and Orndoff Consulting will provide organizations with a personalized Meaningful Use action plan that includes:

• Information on the final measures required for Stage 1 of Meaningful Use and draft measures for Stages 2 and 3
• A report of the organization's benchmark score for each Stage 1 measure and Stages 2 and 3 draft measures
• Their total benchmark score against all measures
• Meaningful Use Readiness Assessment Summary Report with specific recommendations on how to move forward with Meaningful Use compliance

"While behavioral and public health providers will be able to leverage many current processes to meet Meaningful Use criteria and achieve the required clinical quality measures, it is critical to create a plan to identify gaps and a cost-effective way to address them," said Ann Boughtin, principal, Boughtin and Orndoff Consulting.

The readiness assessment service has been successfully utilized by Pathways, Inc., an Ashland, Ky.-based Netsmart customer that provides behavioral healthcare services.

"We worked together to create a solid plan toward meeting the criteria for Meaningful Use funds," said Betsy Jackson, compliance officer, Pathways, Inc. "The readiness assessment gave us a clear perspective on process changes we need to make in order to maximize our eligibility and achieve compliance."

Netsmart and Boughtin and Orndoff Consulting will present a Web seminar, "The Behavioral Health Providers' Guide to Obtaining Meaningful Use Funds," on Wednesday, April 13 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET. The Web seminar, presented in conjunction with Behavioral Healthcare magazine, will provide the latest update on Meaningful Use criteria and how providers can approach the necessary changes in their internal clinical and administrative processes to meet Meaningful Use criteria. To register for Web seminar, visit www.ntst.com/BHC.
Netsmart's Avatar 2011 software has achieved 100 percent ONC-OTCB ARRA ambulatory and inpatient certification. Netsmart was the first behavioral healthcare software provider to offer a complete ARRA-certified EHR for both Eligible Professionals (EPs) and Hospital incentives. Netsmart's CMHC/MIS 4.2 electronic health record (EHR) software successfully completed ARRA ONC-ATCB certification testing for the 21 ARRA certification tests for which it was submitted, earning a Certificate of EHR Compliance for 19 General and Ambulatory criteria. Netsmart plans to complete the 13 remaining ARRA tests in the second quarter of 2011 to make CMHC/MIS 4.2 software a Complete Ambulatory

ARRA-certified EHR. In addition to Avatar and CMHC/MIS, Netsmart also plans to attain ARRA certification of its Insight public health software product in 2011.

These three enterprise software products, in conjunction with Netsmart's order entry, e-prescribing, consumer Web portal and health information exchange (HIE) interoperability technology, will help behavioral and public health provider organizations take advantage of the significant funding provided for the Meaningful Use of EHRs.

See also

• Netsmart's CMHC/MIS EHR software ARRA certified
  
  
• Black named to Netsmart board
  
  
• Netsmart attains complete ARRA-certified electronic health record
  
  
• Netsmart software supports mental health-primary care integration at Shawnee
  
  
• Five Florida organizations select Netsmart as their software provider
  
  
• Netsmart’s Insight software selected by three public health departments
  
  
• Netsmart Technologies' EHR is first to pass ARRA certification tests
  
  
• Netsmart Technologies' e-prescribing service receives additional Surescripts certifications
  
  
• Genstar Capital announces investment in Netsmart Technologies
  
  
• Netsmart Technologies earns SAS70 Type II certification
  
  
• Netsmart Technologies names winner of first annual Customer Innovation Award