In 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) provision was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It was created to help strengthen and reinforce the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) which protects a patients’ health information, as well as uncover fraud in the health care system. With the creation of HITEC Act, there was a push created for the implement of Electronic Health Records (EHR) among providers. With the HITECH Act comes stronger penalties for neglect, fraud and abuse. Breach notifications are required as well as allowing patients and some third parties to be allowed to access their own personal health information (PHI). …show more content…
The providers have to meet requirements for the reimbursements showing utilizing the EHRs. This has resulted in improving efficiency, care coordination and patient safety. Other benefits of meaningful use are improving public health, and engaging patients and their families.
HITECH also provides funding for periodic audits. Audits by both federal and healthcare organizations help to ensure compliance with security rules. In regards to enforcement of breach notification, charges can be brought for violations of the healthcare security and privacy rules. Organizations and individuals can be fined and victims compensated. These fines and penalties for HIPAA violations can be as high as $1.5 million per violations. In an attempt to avoid disclosures of personal health information, a regulation of minimum necessity is implemented.
I feel that the HITECH Act serves to strengthen the protection of a patient’s protected information. It helps to attempt to create a widespread adoption of EHRs and in doing so provide better patient care, care coordination, efficient cost savings, and management of a patients overall
The HITECH act was implemented by U.S congress in order to ensure meaningful adaptation of EHR technology and confirms the providers under Medicare and Medicaid will get payment through the incentives by acceptance of this technology. The main goals under the act are as follows:
HITECH Act was enacted to ensure meaningful use of electronic health records between members of the care team in order to increase patient
The goal of this act was to create financial incentives for industry to follow the HIPAA rules and utilize electronic health records. One important aspect of this act is the idea of meaningful use. Meaningful use is the use of electronic health record technology that has been certified and helps to improve services and privacy of information within an organization. The benefits of this include better health outcomes for the population, increased efficiency for standard processes, and an increase of data for research on health systems. For example HITECH has established an incentive program for Medicare and Medicaid electronic heath information [7].
There are few concerns regarding the HITECH Act that need to be addressed, such as Data breach of protected health information, EHR risk assessments and patients' electronic access to their health information, this access will allow them to view their records online, this kind of access electronic access might cause exposure to their health record online to a third party. Other concern is about the use of the electronic health records and whether it is capable of improving the quality of care and also some privacy and safety issues.
Regulation placed upon the healthcare system only seek to improve safety and security of the patients we care for. The enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the enactment of Meaningful Use Act the United States government has set strict regulations on the security of health information and has allotted for stricter penalties for non-compliance. The advancement of electronic health record (EHR) systems has brought greater fluidity and compliance with healthcare but has also brought greater security risk of protected information. In order to ensure compliance with government standards organizations must adapt
14). In 2009, HIPAA was modified yet again to include the Health Information and Technology and Economic Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. The HITECH Act drastically modified the law to offer enhanced patient privacy and security, new patient rights, and increased compliance enforcement by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) ("New Rule," 2013, para. 2). The HITECH Act put rigorous guidelines in place surrounding data protection of heath information technology to improve patient privacy and security (Grossman, 2014). Many of the new technology requirements have been incorporated with the increased use of electronic health records (EHRs) under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) ("Security Rule," n.d.). The final omnibus rule incorporates some additional regulations, but is primarily based on the final legislative changes under the HITECH Act.
The initial investment of adopting the EHR is both costly and time-consuming, but most experts predict that the pros will outweigh the cons in the end. Meaningful use is beneficial because the providers are making better informed decisions about their patients due to the clinical guidelines and information that they are provided. Health information professionals will always be needed, just in a different capacity.
HIE face a range of challenges as they try to get hundreds and even thousands of participants in sharing data. Getting data in front of doctors and other clinicians is one of the biggest challenges HIEs face. Ideally, it would be delivered directly to a providers' EMR system, so when a patient goes to an outside lab for blood tests, the results would show up in the electronic record at the doctor's office, and the doctor would be notified that the results are there. However, with limited EMR use across the country, HIEs have had to provide alternative delivery methods. HIE is considered to be one of the key components of the national health IT infrastructure being established by the HITECH Act. Policymakers and health care providers believe this health IT infrastructure will produce a number of benefits, many of which are directly related to HIE.
In 2009, President Obama signed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act to promote meaningful use of health information technology (Jha, 2015). Before the HITECH Act was passed, only about 17% of U.S. doctors and about 9% of U.S. hospitals were using an EHR according to Jha (2015). During 2013, the percentages increased to
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 marks a new era in American health care. Yet in many ways, this era began more than a year earlier, with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and its Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provisions. Although HITECH may be viewed narrowly as legislation to
“Meaningful use is the set of standards defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) incentive programs that governs the use of the EHR and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting certain criteria” (Policy making…,2013). Eligible providers include doctors of medicine, osteopathy, oral surgery, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, and
Legislation such as the Health Information Technology for Economics and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act promoted meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) to provide better patient outcomes (CDC, n.d.). Meaningful use is regulated by CMS and National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and is based on five goals including: improving quality, safety, efficiency and reducing health disparities, engage patients and families in their health, improve care coordination, improve population and public health,
Security breaches of EMRs vary from someone without consent viewing the patient’s information, to a hacker using the information to steal one’s identity. According to Privacy Rights Clearing House, more than 260 million data breaches have occurred in the United States, including those of health related records. Approximately 12 percent of data breaches involve medical organizations (Gellman, 2012). According to Redspin, a provider of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act risk analysis and IT security assessment services, more than 6 million individual’s health records were compromised during a period from August 2009 and December 2010 (Author Unknown, 2010). A provision of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act requires all breaches affecting 500 or more people to be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services. This reporting is to be accomplished within 60 days of discovery. The Redspin report covering the period above involved 225 breaches of protected health information. The amount of people with access to an individual’s health record creates concern with confidentiality. According to the Los Angeles
Health information technology (HIT) involves trading of health information in an electronic format to advance health care, reduce health expenditures, improve work efficiency, decrease medication errors, and make health care more accessible. Maintaining privacy and security of health information is crucial when technology is involved. Health information exchange plays an important role in improving the quality and delivery of health care and cost-effectiveness. “There is very little electronic information sharing among clinicians, hospitals, and other providers, despite considerable investments in health information technology (IT) over the past five years” (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2014, p. 1).
All Americans require assurance and protection measures to shield their daily lives and healthcare laws, government regulations, and approaches do only that. The United States government manages these requirements with the expectation of enhancing the strength of the general population while building up the tools, alongside resources and programs to associate in the conveyance of medical care services. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) alongside the security law have affected preventive care services and how it is conveyed. HIPAA was intended to guarantee that the suitable systems were actualized to protect patient's data while getting care.