The Government Accountability Office released a report finding that health care providers who work with regional extension centers are twice as likely to receive Medicare EHR incentive payments as those that don’t work with the centers. In Georgia, the Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center has assisted providers in receiving over $12 million thus far in meaningful use incentive payments.

In an effort to further the incredible advances made through health information technology within the medical industry statewide, the GA-HITEC is offering two special training opportunities during National Health IT Week, which ends today.

Today at noon, Sandy Springs’ Premedex, a partner of GA-HITEC, will host a presentation entitled “Patient Engagement and Population Management Strategies.” Premedex is located at 6151 Powers Ferry Road. The presentation examines methods for improving the quality of health care delivery, increasing patient safety, decreasing medical errors and strengthening the interaction between patients and healthcare providers.

“National Health IT Week is a wonderful opportunity for us to highlight our work serving as a resource to frontline providers and administrators in their quest of meaningful use and beyond,” said Dr. Dominic Mack, principal investigator of GA-HITEC and deputy director of the National Center for Primary Care. “These partnerships allow us to publically recognize our experts who specialize in working with small practices and critical access hospitals that are committed to offering optimal care in underserved communities by offering them innovative technically savvy and succinct solution.”

GA-HITEC’s mission is to be the trusted advisor to Georgia’s hospitals and providers enabling them to meaningfully use electronic health systems, improve clinical outcomes, practice efficiency and quality of care for their patients. Through its team of health IT specialists/advisors and affiliation with vetted vendor solutions, the GA-HITEC provides technical assistance and practice support throughout the state. Through its continuing education and customer support center, it offers residents access to a broad range of medical education programs and support that are both technology and practice improvement related. GA-HITEC is the state’s only federally funded extension center that offers a range of technical services, education, training and products to improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare.

This year is the last one eligible providers can receive the full Medicare meaningful-use incentive payment and the GA-HITEC has the practice and HIT expertise to help more physicians reach meaningful use. It’s not too late to take advantage of the support that the extension center offers to Georgia providers.

Information: 1-877-658-1990 or visit www.ga-hitec.org.