AUSTIN, Texas—VisionWeb announced this week that its Uprise practice management and EHR software has received 2015 certification from the Drummond Group, an Office of the National Coordinator Authorized Certification Body (ONC-ACB). The 2015 certification is the latest available for practice EHR systems, according to the HealthIT.gov website. With the 2015 certification, Uprise users can now “attest to the MIPS program in order to avoid negative payment adjustments on their Medicare payments,” VisionWeb said in its announcement. (For complete certification details, visit www.startyouruprise.com.) MIPS is the federal government’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to help our industry be as efficient as possible, we’ve engineered Uprise to make regulatory compliance an almost effortless experience,” VisionWeb president Tom Loveless said in the announcement. “The 2015 requirements are rigorous, but critical for MIPS participation in 2019. With this certification and the added MIPS features, we’ve made it as simple as possible for our users to participate in the MIPS program without cutting into their valuable time with patients.”

Under the MIPS regulations, ODs are non-exempt in 2018 if they are an eligible clinician and meet the low volume threshold of seeing more than 200 Medicare Part B patients and billing for more than $90,000 in Medicare Part B allowed charges as a provider, VisionWeb noted in its announcement. Performance is measured through the data clinicians report in four areas—quality, promoting interoperability, improvement activities, and cost. MIPS was designed to update and consolidate previous programs including: Medicare EHR Incentive Program, Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), and the Value-Based Payment Modifier.

Masoud Nafey, OD, FAAO, chief medical officer at VisionWeb, said that it’s “absolutely critical” for EHR vendors to invest and stay current with regulatory standards, as the MIPS program isn’t going away. “Those optometrists who are exempt from MIPS this year may not be so fortunate in 2019 and will absolutely be required to use an EHR that has earned the ‘2015 CEHRT’ stamp,” Nafey added. “Uprise EHR accounts for all MIPS measures in the background so doctors can focus on patient care. MIPS is here to stay and Uprise provides a scoring dashboard for practices so they know where they stand and can achieve the highest MIPS scores.”

Uprise practice management and EHR is a cloud-based software solution, designed by ODs for ODs, VisionWeb noted. There are two 2015 certified packages to choose from, Uprise Essentials and Uprise Pro, so that users have flexibility to select the optometry software that best suits the needs of their practice.

In its announcement, VisionWeb also noted that it pioneered the first open and neutral online order processing platform for the optical industry in 2000. Today, VisionWeb connects more than 20,000 eyecare professionals with more than 500 suppliers and ranks as the largest platform in the country, the company noted.