Health Information Technology For Economic And Clinical Health Records

In 2009, the U.S. Government passed The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to promote the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (Mangalmurti, Murtagh and Mello 2060). The HITECH Act authorizes grants and incentives to promote the “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHR) by providers (2060). The effect is a high commitment to a technology-led system reform, urging a renewed national commitment to building an information infrastructure to support health care delivery, consumer health, quality measurement and improvement, public accountability, clinical and health services research, and clinical

After decades of paper based medical records, a new type of record keeping has surfaced - the Electronic Health Record (EHR). EHR is an electronic or digital format concept of an individual’s past and present medical history. It is the principle storage place for data and information about the health care services provided to an individual patient. It is maintained by a provider over time and capable of being shared across different healthcare settings by network-connected information systems. Such records may include key administrative and clinical data relevant to that persons care under a particular provider. Examples of such records may include: demographics, physician notes, problems or injuries, medications and allergies, vital

Electronic health records can provide many benefits for providers and their patients, but the benefits depend on how they 're used. Meaningful use is the set of standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Incentive Programs that governs the use of electronic health records and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria. The goal of meaningful use is to promote the spread of electronic health records to improve health care in the United States. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provides the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) with the authority to establish

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 identified three main components of meaningful use: the use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of care, and the use of technology to submit clinical outcomes and quality measures (Heath Resources and Service Administration, n.d.). ARRA includes many measures to modernize our nation’s infrastructure, with the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act” being an example. The HITECH Act is an effort led by Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) in support of electronic health records and meaningful use (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC 2016). According to Galbraith (2013), the HITECH Act aims to promote the use of EHRs by providing over $27 billion in monetary incentives for health care providers that become “meaningful users”. CMS uses these core objectives to determine if a health care provider has satisfied meaningful use and is eligible to receive financial incentives (Galbraith, 2013).

In 2009, more than $30 billion dollars in incentives was allocated by congress for hospitals to institute meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) by 2011 (Adler-Milstein, Bates, & Jha, 2011) (Murphy, 2010). The Meaningful Use Act is a complicated principle that is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) as well as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act.

Eligible providers must enroll in the EHR Incentive Program established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in order to participate in the program and receive incentive

The ultimate national goal of the HITECH act, through incentive initiatives toward promoting the adoption of EHR, is to achieve meaningful use of interoperable EHR in all parts of the United States. The HITECH act initiative for Medicaid offers doctors maximum payments of $63,750 in incentives over 6 years to those who

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is part of the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act (ARRA) signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009. The HITECT Act introduced the concept of ‘meaningful use’ which incentivized the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) for the overall improvement of healthcare. This act authorized payments to qualified provider groups that meet the 'meaning use ' requirements that are paid out over five year. According to data from the National Ambulatory Medical care Survey, 57% of office based physicians’ utilized EHR system as of 2011 and 52% of this physician plan to apply for the meaningful use incentives in same year. This is a 11% increase from the year before.

From a high level the act includes up to $44,000 in total incentives per physician under Medicare for “meaningful use” of EHR. Physicians reimbursed by Medicaid can receive up to $63,500 based on state-defined guidelines. Hospitals with high Medicare and Medicaid volumes could receive up to $11 million. These incentives will be paid out over a 4 to 5 year period beginning in 2011 (http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1/show).

HITECH Act provides billions of dollars in incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid programs to providers that meaningfully use EHR. The HITECH Act also revised many segments of the Social Security Act (SSA) and in doing so, recognized the accessibility of incentive payments to providers to encourage the acceptance and Meaningful Use of Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT). The ARRA provides the incentives to the following groups: hospitals, healthcare clinics, private practices, nursing facilities, long term health care facilities, and metal institutions.

An Electronic Health Record is a computerized form of a patient’s medical chart. These records allow information to be readily available to authorized providers during a patient’s encounter with the healthcare system. These systems do not only contain medical histories, current medications and insurance information, they also track patients’ diagnoses, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images and lab tests/results (source). The fundamental aspect of EHRs is that they are able to share a patient’s information quickly across service lines and even between different healthcare organizations. Information is at the fingertips of lab techs, primary care physicians, pharmacies, clinics, etc. The

Some alcohol and drug abuse records were inadvertently left accessible via the internet. Fifty patients were affected.

“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an

Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 empowered the federal department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to establish programs to improve health care quality, safety, and efficiency through the promotion of health IT (Hersh et. al, 2015 &. HealthIT.gov, 2015). Such programs include among others provision of incentive funding for the establishment of electronic Health Records (EHR) and secure electronic health information exchange (HIE). This has resulted in substantial increase in the adoption of EHR in various healthcare settings that currently operates in silos. As such the use of these systems in management of patients particularly patients with multiple conditions has been a challenge(Hersh

Since the incentive program started for Meaningful Use, the Office of Inspector General stepped in to assess whether CMS has been using the incentive money wisely as of 2012. In part, the Office of the Inspector General’s Office wanted to examine whether there is Medicare and Medicaid fraud going on. By doing so, the OIG started by sending out letters to several hospitals who have received the incentive payments for Meaningful Use to pinpoint EHR