Greenway Medical Technologies Expands Support for Physician Quality Reporting Initiative...

Greenway Medical Technologies Expands Support for Physician Quality Reporting
Initiative and Pay for Performance Programs

CARROLLTON, Ga., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenway Medical Technologies
announced today its expanded support for quality improvement measures such as
the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and Pay for Performance
(P4P) programs, both of which evolve and influence health information
technology (HIT) adoption.
The PQRI, which was extended through 2008 by President Bush's signing of
the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, includes 119
recordable quality measures. The PQRI is a voluntary program that provides
financial incentives to physicians who successfully report on a specified set
of data gathered from services and procedures they provide to patients under
the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
Greenway's flagship Electronic Health Record (EHR) solution,
PrimeSuite(R), incorporates all of these measures into its daily workflow and
enables physicians to create alerts for patients that meet the reporting
criteria. With PrimeSuite, codes are incorporated into the clinical
documentation process at the point-of-care and then aggregated with the other
charge data, eliminating additional work for the administrative staff
resulting from PQRI charge capture.
Along with PQRI, Greenway(R) has increased its support for various
national and state level P4P initiatives that reward physicians and medical
groups that meet a defined set of performance measures for quality and
efficiency. In February 2008, Greenway executives attended the national P4P
conference in Los Angeles to discuss the current landscape of P4P and expand
upon notable successes like Bridges to Excellence, a not-for-profit
organization developed by experts within the healthcare industry to expedite
the adoption of health information technology and enhance the quality of
patient care.
Currently, there are more than 160 P4P initiatives across the United
States and a report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
states that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are
establishing incentive programs in 12 communities across the nation that
reward EHR adoption. These incentives will be made available to as many as
1,200 small- and medium-size practices during a five year period with total
payments ranging between $58,000 and $290,000 per practice.
States such as Michigan, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have all created
incentives to encourage e-prescribing while several other states have set the
framework to implement widespread e-prescribing adoption within the coming
years. Tennessee recently began offering grant dollars to practices that
incorporate e-prescribing into their workflow. Financial incentives range
from up to $3,500 per physician and $6,000 for practices that enroll in this
initiative.
"It's about improving patient care and office workflow through
connectivity and interoperability," said Dr. Peter N. Kaufman, chief medical
officer at DrFirst, the leading provider of standalone e-prescribing services
nationwide. "E-prescribing helps facilitate true connectivity between
physicians, payers, pharmacies and other disparate systems, resulting in a
more streamlined and efficient system."
As the number of quality improvement measures such as PQRI and P4P
increase, Greenway continues to incorporate these measures into its solutions,
ensuring that physicians can easily code and capture charges and receive the
financial benefits associated with them.
"With the use of PrimeSuite's inherent PQRI recording abilities, we have
been able to precisely and proficiently gather information on charges directly
linked to the PQRI measures for our GI specialty. The available reporting
allows us to directly measure the potential for return on investment," said
Tracey Wieczorek, accounts management supervisor at Midwest Digestive Disease
Specialists of Elmhurst, Ill. "The overall transition into this phase of
coding has proven to be a straightforward and uncomplicated process thanks to
the use of our EHR solution."
"We are pleased to see PQRI and P4P incentives gaining momentum within the
healthcare industry as they both work to expedite the benefits of health
information technology," said Justin Barnes, vice president of marketing and
government affairs at Greenway Medical Technologies. "From the start, Greenway
has helped lead these discussions while at the same time, developed solutions
to inherently capture quality measures, thus providing our customers with yet
another way to maximize their return on investment in our solutions."
About Greenway Medical Technologies Inc.
Greenway Medical Technologies provides the latest in ambulatory healthcare
business solutions and services to 17,000 customers nationwide, in 30
specialties and subspecialties, by enhancing the delivery of patient care
through innovative software and on-demand services that allow physician
practices to function at their highest level of efficiency. Greenway's
PrimeSuite is a comprehensive, interoperable component of its integrated
physician's infrastructure solution, which serves as the starting point of a
long-term business plan for physician practices. PrimeSuite 2007 R2, the first
EHR to be certified by CCHIT(R) based on 2007 Ambulatory Certification
requirements, integrates a practice's clinical, financial and administrative
processes, and allows practices to increase profitability, enhance patient
satisfaction and facilitate adherence to compliance guidelines. Established
in 1998, Carrollton, Ga.-based Greenway Medical Technologies is a privately
held company with 260 employees. For more information about Greenway, visit
www.greenwaymedical.com.
About DrFirst
DrFirst is a national provider of physician connectivity services through
its award-winning Rcopia electronic prescription management system. Founded in
2000, DrFirst creates innovative services targeted to physicians in both
ambulatory and acute care environments. DrFirst solutions are widely
integrated with practice management and electronic medical records software
through its "Open Borders" program, and the company counts among its client
base, not only physician practices, but major health plans, health systems and
EMR vendors. More information about DrFirst can be found at www.drfirst.com.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters
discussed in the press release are forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and
uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including
but not limited to economic, competitive, governmental, and technological
factors affecting the Company's operations, markets, services and related
products, prices, and other factors.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click
appropriate link.
Justin Barnes
http://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=72107

SOURCE Greenway Medical Technologies Inc.

Reid Harper, rharper@brandonadvertising.com, or Erin Barrett,
ebarrett@brandonadvertising.com, both of Brandon Advertising and Public
Relations, +1-843-916-2000, or visit brandonpr.com; or Jennifer Walker of
Greenway Medical Technologies Inc., +1-770-778-5901