0A TRIBUNE | March 2010 DENTAL Rubric DENTAL TRIBUNE Act 5A HITECH | MoNth 2010 TK www.dental-tribune.com $22b for health information technology, TK but not quite so much for dentistry Missed the last edition of Dental Tribune? You can now read some of its content online! specified by the HHS. As of today, no dental EHR has undergone this certification process. Another stumbling block is the way meaningful use has been defined by the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The idea of meaningful use is to define a set of process measures that reflect good health care practices, for instance, periodically checking the blood pressure for hypertensive patients and monitoring glucose levels of diabetics. While some meaningful use measures, such as generating problem lists for oral health conditions, maintaining lists of active medications and allergies, and recording primary language, insurance type, gender, vital signs and other patient-specific variables are certainly appropriate for dentistry, many measures only apply to physician or hospital settings. Unfortunately, the meaningful Implants displaced into use measures, as currently defined, the maxillary sinus include veryAlmog, DMD, that are By Dov M. few criteria relevant to oral DDS Kenneth Cheng, health. Dentists are Mohammad Rabah, DMD & unlikely to demonstrate the capability to enter orders through www.dental-tribune.com/artiancles/content/scope/specialities/ recEHR, perform medication onciliation, submit information to section/implantology/id/542 immunization registries and electronically submit lab reports to Washington cracks down public health agencies. on big tobacco By Fred Michmershuizen, g DT page 6A Online Editor www.dental-tribune.com/articles/content/id/480 AD By Thankam Thyvalikakath, BDS, MDS, MS and Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhD By TK When the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was TK DT signed into law in 2009, $22 billion was set aside to improve patient outcomes through increased use of electronic health records (EHR) by clinicians during the next five years (2011–2015). The proportion expected to go to dentistry: negligible. Prorating dentistry’s share of the health-care market (approximately 5 percent) would yield over $1 billion of the allocated amount, but we will be lucky if we receive a fraction of that. You may ask why. After all, dentistry, with its more than 150,000 practitioners in the United States, is an important primary care discipline that cares for almost 200 million Americans in any given year. The main reason we are pretty much left out is because the legislation was written with the interests of physicians and hospitals, not with those of other health-care providers, in mind. The consequence is a huge missed opportunity for dentistry. The federal government requires providers to fulfill three criteria to become eligible for Health Information Technology (HIT) stimulus funds from the HITECH Act. They must use certified EHRs, demonstrate the capability to measure meaningful use of EHRs based on a pre-defined framework and have a patient population that includes at least 30 percent Medicaid or Medicare beneficiaries for oral health care procedures. Unfortunately, these criteria make it very difficult for any dentist to qualify. At this time, not one dental EHR has been certified by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT). Meaningful use criteria have been developed mainly based on general, not dental, health needs. In addition, few dentists have patient pools that include a large share of Medicaid/Medicare beneficiaries. Electronic health records, the use of which can be supported by the HITECH Act, are certified by CCHIT. CCHIT is an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the official certification body for EHRs since 2006. CCHIT conducts the certification process by following industry standards for EHRs and checking how suitable EHR are in achieving the meaningful use requirements Five of the top 10 reasons why associateships fail By Eugene W. Heller, DDS www.dental-tribune.com/ articles/content/id/507/scope/ specialities/region/usa/section/ practice_management ‘Aren’t you that guy on “Extreme Makeover”?’ An interview with the face of modern cosmetic dentistry, Dr. William M. Dorfman By Robin Goodman, Group Editor www.dental-tribune.com/ articles/content/scope/specialities/section/cosmetic_dentistry/ id/543 New smile, new life: Innovative technologies and techniques can transform a smile By Lorin Berland, DDS, FAACD & Sarah Kong, DDS www.dental-tribune.com/ articles/content/scope/specialities/section/cosmetic_dentistry/ id/544 Here’s some other online content that might be of interest to you … Protective extraoral and reinforced instrumentation strategies By Diane Millar, RDH, MA www.dental-tribune.com/articles/content/scope/specialities/ section/dental_hygiene/id/545 Special Operations Forces dental clinic brings smiles to Iraqi children By Jeffrey Ledesma, USA www.dental-tribune.com/ articles/content/id/535/scope/ politics/region/usa Ancient teeth question origin of men By Daniel Zimmermann, DTI www.dental-tribune.com/articles/content/scope/news/region/ asia_pacific/id/505