Re:     UCF College of Medicine Program to Support Electronic Health Records Adoption

Dear Central Florida Physician,

I am writing to ask you to become part of a health information technology network that we are creating and hope that you will sign the attached letter of commitment. Your statement of interest will help enable us at UCF get a grant that will pay for technical and other assistance for you and other physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in adopting electronic health records.

Background information:

The University of Central Florida College of Medicine (COM) is proposing to partner with you and other physicians in the community to create a network of use of electronic health records. As medicine is practiced in an increasingly technical medical world, our students are exposed to electronic health records from the beginning of medical school. The College of Medicine is seeking to establish a "Regional Extension Center" for health information technology to assist physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants with group purchasing, education, technical support and other services.

We are pleased to report that the COM has received preliminary approval from HHS to establish a Regional Extension Center for Greater Central Florida. We are now seeking funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for a center that will provide services such as the following:

• inform our physicians regarding the rules surrounding the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement incentives for adoption of EHR,
• assist our physicians with vendor selection and financing and organize group purchasing arrangements,
• provide EHR implementation and project management assistance,
• work with physicians on practice and workflow redesign,
• facilitate connection to the Central Florida Regional Health Information Organization Exchange,
• address HIPAA and other data security best practices, and
• work with users to ensure compliance on the "meaningful use" standards set by the federal government.

If the COM is successful in obtaining this grant, we will be able to provide the above support at a low cost. The federal funding is specifically targeting primary care, but the program we hope to build will serve both primary care and specialist providers.

If you have already implemented EHR successfully, this project will be able to assist you in ensuring compliance with the evolving "meaningful use" standards that must be met to obtain the enhanced Medicare and Medicaid payments.

Letters of intent:

Before we launch this program, we need your help. We need physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in Central Florida to sign letters showing their intent to work with us on this Regional Center. Please send us the attached letter of intent that applies to your practice (either Primary Care, including includes internal medicine, family practice, OB-GYN and pediatrics, or Specialist). Your letter of commitment is not a contract but an indication to the funding agency that physicians and other providers in Central Florida like yourself will work with the COM to implement electronic health record technology and facilitate health information exchange. We need to receive these letters no later than October 27.

Please sign the attached Primary Care or Specialist Letter of Commitment and fax or the completed form to 407-823-2611 by October 27, 2009. If you prefer to respond by email, please send an email with the completed form or your name, address, area of specialty, and NPI number and a short statement such as: "This email response is to confirm that I intend to work with the College of Medicine on its Regional Extension Center for Health IT," to

Thank you for your help. If you have any questions, please contact:

Bill Dinger, M.B.A., Legal Affairs and Special Projects (407-823-0489)
Karen van Caulil, Ph.D., Exec. Director, Health Council of East Central Florida (407-977-1610)
Jeanette C. Schreiber, J.D., M.S.W., Associate Dean and Chief Legal Officer (407-823-1841)

Sincerely,

Deborah C. German, M.D.
Dean

This grant requires us to identify providers in two different ways:

Primary Care:

If you are a primary care provider (including Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants) or are boarded in Internal Medicine, Obstetrics, Gynecology, or Pediatrics, please use the primary care providers letter of commitment form.

Other Providers:

Other providers, please use the other providers letter of commitment form.