e-MDs Client is Nation's First Physician Recipient of Electronic Health Records Incentive Payment
Gastorf Family Clinic receives $42,500 from Medicaid.
PR Newswire

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 7, 2011

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- e-MDs, a leading provider of
electronic health records (EHRs), announced that their client, the Gastorf
Family Clinic of Durant, OK, received the first physician-paid incentive
checks in the country under The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive
Programs. On January 5th, 2011, just two days after registration opened for
the incentive programs, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority issued payments
of $21,250 to two physicians at the Gastorf Family Clinic for their
successful adoption and implementation of a certified EHR. The incentive
payment is federally-funded under the Health Information Technology for
Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provisions of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Gastorf Family Clinic worked closely with the Oklahoma Foundation for
Medical Quality (OFMQ), Oklahoma's Health Information Technology Regional
Extension Center, to apply for the incentive program and ensure the
appropriate steps were taken in order to receive the Medicaid payments.
OFMQ, a leader in health care quality improvement, provides health
information technology consulting to Oklahoma providers adopting and
implementing EHRs. The clinic was able to demonstrate its long-term success
with e-MDs Solution SeriesT to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) with support and counseling from OFMQ. "We are pleased to
support the Gastorf Family Clinic on their EHR journey, and we are excited
about this milestone event," said Dale Bratzler, chief executive of OFMQ.
"We hope providers everywhere will recognize that dedicated efforts towards
meaningful use of EHRs will pay off and the Regional Extension Center
program is here to help in the process."

The Gastorf Family Clinic, a small, family-owned clinic in Oklahoma,
implemented e-MDs Solution SeriesT in 2005. The EHR offered their practice
the necessary structure to keep the billing and business organized with the
flexibility to accommodate the clinic's specific medical needs. "Partnering
with e-MDs as our EHR vendor and working with OFMQ, ensured that we could
meet all of the requirements of meaningful use," said Darrell Ledbetter,
CPM, The Practice Manager of Gastorf Family Clinic. "We are very excited to
have received the first payment of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive
Program and pleased that both of our physicians were eligible professionals
for the incentives, netting our clinic a check for $42,500.00, the first
year's installment in the program. e-MDs was certainly the software vendor
and support team we needed to back us up, and we are very grateful to their
staff and the staff of OFMQ for their continued support. We encourage other
providers to participate in this worthwhile program."
"We feel honored that one of our clinics has been chosen by CMS to be the
first ambulatory practice in the nation to receive incentive funds for the
use of a certified EHR," stated Michael Stearns, MD, President and CEO of
e-MDs, Inc. "We look forward to working with the Oklahoma Foundation for
Medical Quality and the Gastorf Family Clinic to help their providers
qualify for additional incentives tied to the Meaningful Use of our
certified EHR."



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