CMS Electronic Health Records Demonstration

Virginia Selected as a Community to Advance Use of Electronic Health Records

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt visited Richmond on June 12, 2008 and was joined by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, Michael Matthews, CEO of MedVirginia, and other distinguished guests in announcing that Virginia will participate in a national Medicare demonstration project that provides incentive payments to physicians for using certified electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality of patient care.

Over the five-year demonstration project, financial incentives will be provided to as many as 100 primary care physician practices in Virginia that use certified EHRs to improve quality as measured by their performance on specific clinical quality measures.

Mr. Matthews was named in February as the Virginia “Community Convener” by Secretary Leavitt. Subsequently, Mr. Matthews formed a taskforce comprised of healthcare leaders from across the state and led the development of the winning application. Virginia was one of twelve communities selected by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) through a competitive process from a field of more than 30 applicants.

The Demonstration will be implemented in two phases. CMS will begin working with partners in four Phase I communities over the coming months to develop site-specific recruitment strategies, and recruitment of physician practices will start in the fall. For Phase II sites such as Virginia, these activities will begin in the summer of 2009.

To learn more about this project, click on the links below. Additional information will be added to this page as it becomes available. For more information contact Jeff Odell, Senior Vice President, MedVirginia by phone: 804.359.0671 x227 or by email: jodell(at)MedVirginia.net.