Vermont HIT Group, Allscripts Form Partnership

Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc (VITL), the nonprofit organization facilitating the expanded use HIT in Vermont, and Allscripts, an HIT provider with a major facility located in South Burlington, Vt., have announced their intention to enter into a strategic alliance.

VITL is the state-funded provider of HIT infrastructure for Vermont’s Blueprint for Health, an initiative of the Vermont Department of Health to build a statewide chronic care information system. Formed by a broad base of providers, payers, employers, patients, and state agencies, VITL is a multistakeholder nonprofit corporation largely supported by the state’s Health Information Technology Fund.

The alliance will allow the two organizations to leverage their combined expertise, capabilities, contacts, knowledge, and services to accelerate the adoption of EHR systems by Vermont-based physicians, with specific focus on small practices and rural physicians. It is envisioned that Allscripts products and services will be made available to Vermont healthcare providers at preferred pricing.

The Blueprint for Health provides Vermonters the information, tools, and support they need to successfully manage their health. Its model of a patient-centered medical home, supported by community health teams, seeks to shift the focus of healthcare from the largely reactive treatment of symptoms to a more proactive approach. VITL selected Allscripts as its partner in the statewide program after reviewing several EHR system vendors.

Beginning in 2011, Vermont physicians can qualify for between $44,000 and $64,000 in payments from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for adopting and demonstrating “meaningful use” of an EHR. Physicians who have not adopted certified EHR systems by 2014 will have their Medicare reimbursements reduced by up to 3% beginning in 2015.

The partnership between VITL and Allscripts follows a recent announcement by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the state’s governor that Medicare will join Medicaid and private insurers in a new demonstration project to improve the way healthcare is delivered. The new partnership between the public and private payers will be based on the model of primary care delivery that is currently being tested by Vermont’s Blueprint for Health.

Under the Vermont model, private insurers work in cooperation with Medicaid to set uniform standards for advanced primary care models, also known as medical homes. The goal is to provide physicians with incentives to spend more time with their patients and offer better-coordinated, higher-quality medical care.

Allscripts will join VITL in facilitating the automation of the patient-centered medical home and community health teams, local multidisciplinary teams created by the Blueprint initiative that provide care support across physician practices for prevention, health maintenance, and chronic disease.
 
Source: Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc