UnitedHealth Group to Further Physician Adoption of EHRs

Minnetonka, Minn.- based UnitedHealth Group launched new initiatives, which further enhance its broad portfolio of electronic health record (EHR)-related programs. These initiatives support the Department of Health and Human Services' drive to increase physician adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other health information technology that meet recently-released federal “Meaningful Use” criteria for EHRs.

Among the initiatives announced:

1. Its UnitedHealthcare business is deploying nationally its performance-based contracting program, which provides outcomes-based financial incentives to physicians who have successfully adopted EHR systems that meet Meaningful Use criteria. The program previously was available only in selected regional markets.

2. UnitedHealthcare’s Premium Designation physician performance assessment criteria will now include new credit for physicians who use EHRs that meet Meaningful Use standards.

3. Practice experts in UnitedHealthcare's Physician Advocate Program, who assist physicians with their administrative work, will now receive special training to support physician practices in qualifying and applying for federal reimbursement when purchasing meaningful use-compliant EHRs. In addition, they will support physician practices with access to the Ingenix CareTracker EHR, which provides all of the capabilities necessary for physicians to demonstrate Meaningful Use, and is now available to physicians with zero percent financing from OptumHealth Bank until they receive federal reimbursement. This augmented Physician Advocate Program will now be rolled out in 14 states across the country.

4. Its Ingenix business has introduced CareTracker for Federally Qualified Health Centers. This cost-effective cloud-based EHR system integrates fully with a specially-designed suite of administrative management services tailored to the specific challenges of these community health centers. Ingenix believes that this will support broader adoption of Meaningful Use compliant EHRs by our nation's health centers.