WASHINGTON – Efforts to include Community Behavioral Health Organiza-tions (CBHOs) in the Medicaid and Medicare incentive provisions under the HITECH Act are being ramped up, as advocacy groups race the clock, fighting for inclusion.

The approximately $17 billion in incentive payments created to encourage EHR adoption by providers, are available to psychiatrists but CBHOs, as facilities, are not eligible for this funding. However, due to advocacy organizations’ lobbying efforts, they are eligible for the $2 billion in state grant provisions to be awarded by the Office of the National Coordinator.

Under the HITECH bill Medicare incentive payments will be made to providers beginning in 2011 if they demonstrate meaningful use of an electronic health record. The federal government has not yet settled on a definition of meaningful, but experts agree it will most likely include having Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) certification. The CCHIT Behavioral Health Work Group is in the midst of reviewing and revising the criteria and test scripts that will drive the certification testing for behavioral health EHRs. 

Mike Morris, president of Anasazi, a provider of software for behavioral healthcare management based in Phoenix, Ariz., says he expects that CCHIT certification for behavioral health EHRs will have to be much more flexible for the behavioral health environment.

Organizations should not wait for CCHIT to release certification requirements before implementing an EHR. “If we presume funding through Medicare and Medicaid is going to apply to behavioral heath entities, then they would have already needed to implement in order to be eligible. Today is too late,” he said.

Netsmart Technologies, Inc., based in Great River, N.Y., a privately-owned, supplier of enterprise-wide software solutions for health and human services providers, became the first provider of its kind to gain CCHIT certification for its EHR.

Netsmart’s executive vice president of corporate development Kevin Scalia predicts that CCHIT certification for behavioral health EHRs will be simpler then for the ambulatory market, with the bar initially set pretty low.

Synergistic Office Solutions, a developer of billing and practice management software designed for mid-sized
to large-mental health and medical practices and small to mid-sized behavioral health agencies, provides a clinical record product under $600. Vice President Katherine E. Peres says the product is not ready to meet CCHIT requirements, but the company is moving in that direction.

“I am not entirely convinced that in order to participate in a network that everyone will need certified products to make that happen. So much remains to be seen,” she says.

Scalia has been part of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare’s lobbying efforts to include CBHOs in the HIT funding. The council is not-for-profit association representing 1,300 organizations providing treatment and rehabilitation to help people recover from mental illnesses and addiction disorders.

On June 9-10 it held a “Hill Day” during which 350 mental health and addictions administrators and psychiatrists, patients and community leaders from 40 states gathered to tackle four initiatives including funding for CBHOs.

President and CEO Linda Rosenberg is lobbying for a line in the HITECH bill that would make it clear that community mental health organizations are eligible for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements for showing meaningful use of IT, as hospitals and physician practices are.

Scalia and Rosenberg are urging people to contact their representatives about funding. “Now is the time for action,” Rosenberg says.