Under the negotiated agreement, the Ministry of Health will provide approximately $108 million over the six year term of the agreement (April 2006 to March 31, 2012). PITO will disburse the funds to physicians on a cost-shared basis between government (70%) and physicians (30%).
Two changes to the PITO funding policies came into effect on January 19th, 2011. The first is a change to the funding of electronic interfaces (new regional interfaces that did not exist at the time of an original EMR contract). The second is a change to funding for group clinics with part-time and short-term physicians.
Please see the Funding Policy Change Notice (PDF) for details.
For any reimbursement questions, please contact Catriona Armitage at catriona.armitage@pito.bc.ca. For questions regarding eligibility for funding or how to proceed, please contact your PITO Relationship Manager.
| PITO Solution Offering | Annual Funding per Eligible Physician Unit | |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum Eligible Costs | Maximum PITO Contribution (70%) | |
| Electronic Medical Record | ||
| Implementation (one-time costs + Y1 license) | $10,000 | $7,000 |
| Year 1 Annual Operating Costs | $4,080 | $2,856 |
| Year 2+ Ongoing Annual Operating Costs | $6,420 / year | $4,494 / year |
| Hardware & Other Implementation Costs
(details) Hardware & "Other" Includes eligible devices (must be compatible with the EMR the physician selects):
|
||
| Hardware: Computers, laptops, tablets, printers and scanners that meet your EMR vendor's minimum specifications for use with the EMR | $7,000 | $4,900 |
| Other one-time costs: Local Area Network (LAN), voice dictation software, MS Office, conversion of existing EMR data, custom interfaces/templates (see PITO Policies for full list of eligible costs) | ||
| Conversion Funding | ||
| Data Conversion costs related to moving clinical data from a legacy EMR system to the PITO Qualified EMR solution. This may include third party or clinic resources involved in the export, manipulation or import of data during conversion. | $3,000 | $3,000 (Costs are reimbursed at 100%) |
| Secure Network | ||
| Private Physician Network (PPN) connection + Secure Email (up to 3 accounts per physician) | Service provided by MOH | No cost |
| Implementation & Transition Support | ||
| Implementation support provided by PITO Relationship Managers | Service provided by PITO | No cost |
1. Actual costs reimbursed will vary based on actual vendor pricing (e.g. $4,500-$9,800 one-time). Vendor pricing cannot exceed costs proposed in the EMR Request for Proposals (RFP) and must include: EMR software license, maintenance, upgrades, ASP hosting (servers, storage backups, interfaces), implementation planning & support, training, post-implementation support, level 1 helpdesk and termination services (export of patient data for continuity of care).
2. Eligible Physician Unit means one (1) Eligible Physician and includes up to three (3) full-time equivalents of medical office assistants, nurses and other staff members to the Eligible Physician, and any number of medical trainees of the Eligible Physician who do not bill for medical services, including: (i) Eligible Physicians working part?time and in group practices, (ii) substitutions and exchanges of the Eligible Physician and staff member full time equivalents, and (iii) shared roles among the staff member full time equivalents.
3. All monies are reimbursed to physicians upon receipt of invoices for actual costs incurred and physician acceptance sign-off on implementation of a PITO-qualified EMR. PITO reimbursement of annual costs continues until end of term of Registration Agreement (generally March 31, 2012).