The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act

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

In 2008, the American economy broke down. Known as the Global Financial Crisis, this is widely considered to be the worst financial crisis since the 1930’s when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression hit.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the electronic health record mandate. Who started it and when? I will discuss the goals of the mandate. I will discussion will how the Affordable Care Act ties into the mandate of Electronic Health Record. It will describe my own facility’s EHR and what steps are been taken to implement it. I will describe the term “meaningful use,” and it will discuss possible threats to patient confidentiality and the what’s being done by my facility to prevent Health Information and Portability Accountability Act or HIPAA violations.

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 purpose of this discussion board is to describe the Electronic Health Record (EHR), the six steps of an EHR and how my facility implements them, describe “meaningful use” and how my facility status is in obtaining it, and to further discuss the EHR’s and patient confidentiality.

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).

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made an investment in the year 2009 to encourage the adoption and implementation of the electronic health records (EHRs)(Cite). EHRs incentive payments were authorized through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals when they privately and securely used EHRs for achieving improvements in care delivery by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). The healthcare organizations are expected to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs. This rule of meaningful use has been implemented to strike a balance between acknowledging the urgency of adopting EHRs for improving the healthcare system and identifying the challenges that would be put forth

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.

Meaningful use may have helped the increase in implementation of healthcare information technology by providing overall the best quality and safety we can for the patients. HIT made it easier for doctors and administrators to provide better care for patients. Electronic Health Record (EHR) focused on the patient’s well-being. Also, it has helped make patients and their family engage with each other and feel comfortable with their doctor. With all these benefits we were getting from technology it became easier for society to notice how important we needed healthcare information technology. Being exposed more to it also made it easier for doctors and administrator’s to give the public what they deserve when it came to healthcare. Meaningful use

Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on February 17, 2009. President Obama signed the act into law four days later. The law directed about $150 billion in new funds to the healthcare industry. It included $87 million for Medicaid, $24.7 billion to subsidize private health insurance for people who lose or have lost their jobs, $19.2 billion for health information technology, and $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The act also provided $650 million to support preventive medicine and wellness activities targeting health issues such as; obesity, smoking, and other risk factors for chronic diseases as well as $500 million for health professions training programs. This legislation has helped stimulate the

People believe the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA had a centralizing effect, yet there are motives that support, as well as some that oppose the act. The act is sometimes referred to as The Stimulus or The Recovery Act. The United States Congress in February of 2009 passed this Act and it was signed in the same month, by President Barack Obama.

In 2009, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed into law as a stimulus package in efforts to reverse the financial recession in the United States. Part of the legislation included, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act that incentivized hospitals and physician practices to adopt certified electronic health records (EHR) and to encourage the use of health care technology in a meaningful way (Falk, 2014). The ultimate goal of HITECH and Meaningful Use (MU) is to create a national healthcare infrastructure that is connected, develop systems to warehouse and share data, and in turn improve care and efficiencies for patients and providers (Blumenthal & Tavenner, 2010). The raid adoption

The goal in healthcare today is to achieve better patient outcomes. Technology is changing daily that affects how patient care is provided. As the world around us continues to move into a more advanced technology based healthcare system incentives are offered to qualifying healthcare entities, provided they are utilizing approved health information technology (IT) to comply with standards set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (Jones, Rudin, Perry, & Shekelle, 2014). Standards such as meaningful use help ensure with the use of electronic health records (EHR) that patients are receiving quality care (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], n.d.). This paper will define and discuss the importance and implications of meaningful use relating to healthcare. Several key points will be discussed including an overview of meaningful use, analysis, further recommendations and a conclusion.

Meaningful Use (MU) is a specific type of incentive program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This incentive program is used to encourage the implementation of Health Information Technology (HIT). The goal is to offset financial burdens to Eligible Professional’s (EP) implementing an EHR. Thus, ensuring HIT, in the form of an EHR, continuously progresses the ARRA mandate forward. Utilization of the EHR in a meaningful way, such as health information exchange allows for improved quality of patient care. MU Clinical Quality Measures (CQM) requires qualitative data collection. Thus, allowing a consistent data collection process for analyzing and determining compliance rates, per measure. Capturing the CQM lends many nurses

Electronic health records (EHR’s) have many advantages, but there are plenty of disadvantages. EHR’s were created to manage the many aspects of healthcare information. Medical professionals use them daily and most would feel lost without it. Healthcare organizations were encouraged to adopt EHR’s in 2009 due to the fact that a bill passed known as The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). “The HITECH Act outlines criteria to achieve “meaningful use” of certified electronic records. These criteria must be met in order for providers to receive financial incentives to promote adoption of EHRs as an integral part of their daily practice”, (Conrad, Hanson, Hasenau & Stocker-Schneider, 2012).