The CRISP REC is partnering with Management Services Organizations (MSOs) to provide local technical assistance, guidance, outreach and education to support providers in achieving meaningful use. MSOs are represented by hospitals, healthcare technology companies and other healthcare organizations that are qualified to address the challenges associated with provider adoption of EHRs.  The Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) has established the MSO State Designation as a way to offer providers qualified MSOs to address the challenges associated with the adoption of electronic health records.

By ONLY working with MSOs, providers can feel confident that they are partnering with a company that has vetted by both the MHCC and by CRISP. 

By working with an MSO, Maryland providers can get the following benefits:

• Providers can access their patient's records wherever Internet access exists
• Capital investments often required when adopting EHRs may be lessened
• MSOs assume the vendor negotiating role
• MSOs can secure more favorable pricing for their subscribers
• Health information is safeguarded through a data center that ensures high quality and uninterrupted service
• Technical support typically extends beyond standard business hours
• MSOs will offer connectivity to the Statewide health information exchange (HIE)

All MSOs that are participating in the CRISP Regional Extension Center are required to provide the following Direct Technical Assistance Services to Maryland providers at no charge to the provider: 

• Training and Education – Learn about the effective strategies and practices to select, implement, and meaningfully use certified EHR technology. Provide or facilitate EHR application training with EHR vendors or partners. Provide materials and hold training events and programs for the practice.
   
• Practice and Workflow Redesign – Provide support for practice and workflow redesign necessary to achieve Stage 1of meaningful use. Work with EHR vendor(s) to optimize the use of the EHR systems for the consistent documentation of essential clinical information in structured formats by instituting electronic administrative transactions, electronic prescribing, electronic laboratory ordering and resulting, sharing key clinical data across practice settings, providing future patient access to their health information, public health reporting, and policies and practices that protect the privacy and security of personal health information.
   
• Project Planning – Provide project management support for the EHR implementation process, including individualized coaching, consultation, troubleshooting, and other activities required to assure that the provider is able to assess and enhance organizational readiness for health information technology (IT), assess and remediate gaps in IT infrastructure, configure the software to meet practice needs and enable meaningful use, ensure adequate software training for all staff, and track and adhere to implementation timelines.
   
• Progress Toward Connecting to CRISP Health Information Exchange (HIE) – Assist providers with connecting to the statewide HIE infrastructure (note: while there are no CRISP fees for providers to connect, certain EHR vendors may charge for interfaces to be built)
   
• Privacy and Security Best Practices – Support providers in implementing best practices with respect to the privacy and security of health information, including: implementation and maintenance of physical and network security, access controls, disaster recovery, encryption and storage of backup media, human resources training and policies; and identification of state laws and regulatory requirements that impact privacy and security policies for electronic interoperable health information exchange.
   
• Progress Towards Meaningful Use – Assist Practices by reviewing the utilization of the EHRs, and providing appropriate feedback and support to improve low utilization of features essential for meaningful use (e.g., electronic prescribing). Help providers to understand and implement technology and process changes needed to attain meaningful use requirements. Assist providers with understanding CMS reporting requirements and work with provider’s EHR vendor(s) to gather the specific data in order to report.